Pinwheels of Red and Black
by Mirimel
Summary: What would you do if you were in the world of ninja? How would you react? What would you change?... How would you do it? SI OC. Rated T just in case.
1. Chapter 1

**Well, apparently I decided to write a Self-Insert OC fic. When did that happen? So, it's a girl-dies-and-gets-reborn-in the Naruto verse, basically. Also, I say 'Self-Insert', but it really isn't; she's vaguely based off of me, at best. So. It'll probably be really long, and I give no guarantees that I'll actually ever finish it. For now, though, it's really interesting, so it'll probably get at least a couple of chapters before I give up. At the moment, I'm planning on going over her life as a young child with semi-unnecessary specificity, which is kind-of explained at the end of this chapter. It's also in part because I need work on not skipping everything I don't find interesting or have trouble with. By the way, I was mostly inspired by Dreaming of Sunshine by SilverQueen. If you like Naruto SI OC fics, you should definitely go read it. It's way better than this. Also, frequent use of ellipses, and probably a large amount of dashes. Just a warning.**

**Chapter the First: The Necessary End (Before the Intended Beginning)**

I'm not cool. I've never been impressive or idolized. I don't have an unshakeable determination or incredible drive; I give up at doing anything difficult within a couple of days, and I rarely expend much effort on anything I don't need to, so ambition? Please. I absolutely despise P.E class, and the thought of doing sports is laughable at best. I'm not especially smart – I scrape A's in most of my classes without ever being highest or fastest. I'm not charismatic or likable – there are a few people I get along with pretty well, but not enough to call friends. I'm not very nice; I'd much rather laugh at somebody than help them, though that might be the laziness. I'm not a leader; I don't take charge and tell people what to do, or even control the situation from the shadows. Even trying to be manipulative is hopeless, seeing as my best attempts to get people to do things consist of 'please?... Pretty please? Pretty please with cherries on top?'. I don't magically always know what to do. In fact, I rarely have any idea about what to do at all.

My dream, if I had to say, is probably to get a fairly good job, never marry or have kids, retire in my fifties, and die peacefully of old age sometime in my seventies or eighties. My parents don't approve of this goal in life. They would much rather if I went to some super prestigious college and got a leading position in whatever profession I go into. They very much want to live vicariously through me – their only child.

At the moment, that is. There's a baby on the way, as far as I can tell. They think I don't know, but it's kind of hard to ignore when your mother randomly starts jumping and squealing in the bathroom. I don't mind, not really. This way, they'll have their impressive, ambitious child and the promise of grandkids, and I can fade into the background.

But for now they still expect me to be their perfect dream child. And currently, that includes going to the bank for my mother after school. Which, in turn, means walking, since I can't drive yet.

So I grudgingly turn away from home towards the bank on my way out of school. There's always this really busy four-way intersection, one that I, of course, have to cross to get to the bank. I press the 'walk' button quickly before hurriedly moving away, towards the back of the sidewalk. It's a habit of mine, formed from a combination of paranoia – don't let anybody stay behind you – and self-consciousness – don't get in anybody's way, even though there's nobody else around at the moment.

The 'walk' light turns green and I start forward along the empty crosswalk – no cars waiting on this side, but I hurry anyway. I'm always half afraid of crossing the street, worried about getting hit. I get about half-way across the street without anything happening, and I'm just about convincing myself that nothing will happen.

And then the car rushes up from along the road, going way above the speed limit. I'll admit now, I froze. Not just for a minute before kicking myself into gear – I full on _froze_ from the second I saw the car. In a purely instinctual – and completely useless – reaction, I turned towards it and threw my arms up in front of my face. Obviously, this would have done nothing against a car.

But then, just as I'm cringing, expecting to feel – well, whatever having a several ton object slam into you at 80 mph feels like, the car screeches to a stop, bare inches from me.

Bet you didn't expect that, huh?

I lower my arms slowly, breathing heavily. I can clearly hear my heartbeat pounding in my ears. The driver of the car, who is obviously drunk, turns around me, surprisingly deftly for being drunk, and speeds off.

Dazedly, I wander onto the sidewalk. No point staying on the road to actually get run over, after all. I move to lean against the outside wall of some building, numbly watching everybody else continue about their business. Most of them didn't even notice. It strikes me, suddenly, just how little I matter to all these people – they would have cared if I'd gotten hit, of course, but in a distant, 'how horrible for her family' way. I would have been forgotten again the next day.

It was jarring. It was also just enough for me to remember that I was supposed to be going to the bank, and I'd probably get another lecture about ambition and motivation if I took too long.

So I continue to the bank, doing my best to ignore what had happened.

The intersection is actually fairly close to the bank, so I get to the bank soon after. And of course, it's hot and stuffy, like always, though there are surprisingly few people; two tellers, two people waiting at one and three at the other. And technically, two of those three were together; a woman and a little kid. He was probably four or five, I can't say for sure. Aside from the ten of us, the bank appeared to be completely empty, which was a far contrast to the thirty or forty people usually there.

I join the line behind the woman and her son, smiling awkwardly at him. I'm worse with kids than I am with adults, and that's really saying something.

The person at the teller, a tall man in a business suit, finishes, and we all move up in line. The business man walks out, but as he reaches the door, four black masked – not ski masks, though - men storm through it. The first one through passes by him, drawing an Uzi from a black bag at his side, but the second pulls out another Uzi from his own bag and smashes the business man across the face with it.

The business man flies to the floor as the last two also draw Uzis. The first one – let's call him First – points his gun at the ceiling and shouts the stereotypical, "Alright, everybody on the floor!" His eyes, just visible from behind the mask, glare at us. None of us move, frozen in place. I can't breathe, feeling like there isn't enough air. The little kid starts crying, his mother frantically trying to calm him.

First snarls something under his breath. "I said, _get on the floor_!" He roars, firing at the ceiling (a distant part of my mind notes that it's a terrible waste of bullets). We all jump, several others crying out in shock. I don't – I'm not sure I could, panicking as I am. My throat is probably too twisted up in fear to make a sound. Slowly, each of us lowers our self to sit on the floor, holding our hands up at the level of our head. I guess it's just instinct to do that, trying to show that we're not dangerous.

First lowers his gun, scowling suspiciously as he regards us. His gaze lingers over me, and I can't move – can't so much as twitch until he looks away – practically the epitome of an animal caught in a predator's gaze.

He grunts, apparently satisfied. "Do as I say and nobody'll get hurt, try anything and I guarantee that the only way you'll get out is in a body bag! Got it?"

Third and Fourth stay near the entrance of the bank, while Second joins First at the front with us. First stomps over to a teller and points his gun at her. "I want all of the money you've got here," he growls. I mean that literally, too; he makes this funny noise that sounds oddly like a dog growling.

First gestures at the other teller with his Uzi. "You too, sweetheart." As the tellers begin packing money into bags, he seems to notice the crying kid. He looks disgusted (behind the mask) as he swings around to point his gun at the kid, whose mother gasps and clings to her son harder. No way… "Shut up, kid," First says darkly. Is he really – "Don't think I won't put you to bed. Permanently."

He _is_.

Obviously, this just causes the kid to cry more as his mother curls her body around him, putting herself in the line of fire instead. The kid keeps crying.

…A kid? Really? He'd shoot a kid for crying? The other people – I look around, and… they aren't moving, aren't doing anything. Of course not. A young child about to be shot is horrible, terrible, but… not personal. Which is what it'll be if they do anything.

And I – Do I just let the kid die? Don't say or do anything, don't stop the guy from killing the kid? If I do, then the kid will probably survive, but First will focus on me instead. Do I want that? No, of course not.

…I don't want to die. Not for any reason, not because I still haven't done that one thing or achieved some amazing thing. It's not even for my parents, who would be heartbroken about my death, because they're having another child. They'll be fine without me. I just don't want the existence I have to cease or change.

And the kid will be fine.

Except for where he won't.

The kid is still crying, and First still seems seriously pissed off about it. He lunges forward, grabbing the mom by her hair and wrenching her away. He presses his gun to the kid's forehead.

He's just a _kid_.

Can I really face my parents, be happy with them, celebrate my life, when I didn't even try? When I just sat there and let a little kid be killed in front of me?

…No. "Stop!" I shout at the top of my lungs. I have to distract him, have to be more annoying than the kid. It would probably be easier if I wasn't starting to hyperventilate.

"What kind of villain goes around killing kids?" I challenge him, standing as First freezes. It's a bit disconcerting to realize just how much taller he is than me. But I try for an infuriating smirk anyway. "Seriously, that's just pathetic. You're so lame, the only ones you can pick on are children?"

First turns to me, a thunderous expression forming – or at least I assume so, seeing as he's still wearing a mask. "Do you want to repeat that, girlie?" he says lowly, lowering his Uzi to point at the floor.

I'm sure my heart is trying to leave through my throat, and my legs are shaking so badly I'm amazed I'm still standing, but I force a light-hearted laugh, throwing my head back. "Of course not," I say cheerfully, wiping my clammy hands on my pants and hoping he can't tell how terrified I am. "That would be boring, reusing insults." I pause for dramatic effect, forcing my face into a thoughtful expression. "But maybe I should anyway, I mean, I wouldn't want you to miss any, since you're obviously so slow and hard of hearing."

He roars wordlessly, throwing his gun up to point at me – and Second grabs it, wrenching it away to point at the wall as it goes off, loosing several bullets. First snarls at his partner, "What?"

Second says something, too quiet for me to hear, but it makes First hesitate and say something back. They have a quiet conversation, occasionally glancing at me or the tellers. Finally, Second nods, seemingly having lost the argument, and moves away, back towards the tellers.

"Alright, girlie." First smirks nastily. He aims his gun at me again. I just gape at him, frozen in place again, and isn't it really stupid that something vital like breathing is one of the first things to go when you're afraid? "I told you, didn't I? A body bag."

What? No. No, no, no, no, somebody will save me, right? I'm not supposed to die, I don't – but again, nobody is helping, even the woman with the kid, and I'm really, actually going to _die_.

I jerk backwards, trying to save myself, as he pulls the trigger. Oddly enough, there's no watching my life play before my eyes (it would have been a boring movie anyway), but there is this trippy slow-mo effect. I'm not entirely happy about this, because it means that I watch as the bullets rush towards my face, also stuck moving in slow-mo. On another note, it gives me plenty of time to contemplate how much getting shot in the face hurts. I'm not sure if this is a good thing.

Clearly, this is what I get for being the hero. But then, glancing at the – still crying – kid I hopefully saved… I don't really regret it. Unfortunately, since I'd really like to feel like this was anything but my own choice. Being a good person seriously sucks sometimes.

I guess it must not hurt, because the bullets reach me, and then… nothing.

* * *

I wake up slowly, surrounded by darkness and slight pressure. This is death? Really? It's kind of, well, boring. A little underwhelming, honestly. Where's the fire and brimstone, or the golden gates and clouds? Of course, that's assuming that either of those exist, and I've never been convinced; I like to consider myself agnostic.

I try to move and find it much more difficult than it should be. But I keep trying, eventually managing to bump a leg against one of the… walls, maybe, that are around me. I cackle triumphantly, but only mentally because I'm sure I couldn't move well enough to actually do that. Even just a kick exhausted me, far more than it should have.

This continues for a while – building up enough strength to move before tiring myself out again, and repeat. A lot. I think I fell asleep, occasionally, too. Eventually, it gets easier – it takes less time for me to recover enough to move again. I don't know how long it took, unable to tell time.

And then things start getting really freaky. It isn't really like movement, there's no feeling that I'm actually moving, but the space around me is slowly getting smaller. It isn't continuous – a little bit at a time and then nothing for a while. Well, I say a while – I'm still not sure how much time is actually passing.

After what seems like a long time of this, the space around me disappears entirely, and I'm left feeling rather squished. Soon after, it starts constricting further and further – and then I can see something. Light?

Slowly, my head emerges into empty space, soon-ish followed by the rest of me, into… hands? I can't see – everything is blurry, like a painting that got smeared before it could dry. I can tell light and dark, I think, but other than that, I can't really tell what anything is.

It's all incredibly shocking and disturbing, actually, but I'm still kind of lethargic from so long in seeming nothingness, and so I don't really react much.

I can't really see, but I'm aware of movement now, and it feels like I'm being carried bridal style as the person holding me walks somewhere. Soon, however, I'm relocated to a new person's arms, one who isn't moving around. But it's odd, they're all holding me much too easily, almost as if… as if I'm a baby.

There are people murmuring around me, I can hear. But, as I strain my hearing, I can't understand them. They're not speaking English. Actually, it sounds like Japanese – I was just starting second year high school Japanese when I'd died.

And isn't that weird to say? 'When I died'. Your own death is such an odd thing to be able to reference. But… if I died, and I was clearly not in America, and I was apparently a baby, then it could be... reincarnation?

I could, maybe, figure it out if I could just _see_. It is surprisingly frustrating to not be able to use sight to identify things. I can tell I'm being held by a woman, who I can see fairly clearly, possibly because I'm so close to her. My new mother, maybe. She was pale, with dark eyes, and had long black hair. The room we're in doesn't look like a hospital room, more like a bedroom. A home birth? Weird.

There are other people around, I think; I can see hazy moving figures. Two of them are right next to me and the woman holding me (it's too weird to think of her as my mother), one of them on each side of the bed, and there are another two at the far side of the room. The far two are much smaller, more like children, but so blurry I can't really tell.

Just now, I notice that I'm actually incredibly tired. As if just thinking is too strenuous for me. Wait, it actually probably is, since a newborn baby's brain isn't exactly developed enough for thinking at an adult level. It is impressive that my baby brain can handle my transferred higher intellect at all, but it is most likely going to get incredibly frustrating.

It's not like that really matters, I suppose, since being stuck as a baby in general is going to be annoying.

And then I fall asleep.

* * *

I spend the first couple of weeks (I think; I still can't really tell time) mostly just repeating the same cycle – wake up, try to make sense of the slowly-getting-less-blurry shapes around me, think about just about anything for a while, fall asleep. And repeat. It is so, _so _boring. I've never been happier that I don't remember my first time as a baby.

They probably think there's something wrong with me, since I never cry until it's absolutely necessary in order to get fed or changed. Being a baby is humiliating.

But there is one new thing about this body – I don't even know what it is. It's just a feeling, I suppose, but it seems like more. Like there's something _in_ my body that wasn't there before. It's not just me, though. Whenever anybody comes close to me, I can feel it from them, too – not exactly the same, but very similar. Maybe it's just something about being a baby?

Anyway, there are two people who often spend time with me; my new mother, and what I assume is her youngest son, who is probably not much older than I am now. My new father and their older son also visit, but not nearly as often.

Whenever they're around, I do my best to translate their Japanese into something I can understand, but a single high school Japanese class is hardly enough to suddenly be dropped into Japan. I haven't been able to pick out names yet, either, so in my head (even if I wanted to, I seem to be unable to speak) I just call them 'Father', 'Mother' (to differentiate these ones from my original parents, who are 'mom' and 'dad'), 'big brother', and 'bigger brother', all in English. And yes, I know this is childish. I don't care.

I mean, I know the Japanese for mom and dad; okaasan and otousan, and the word for big brother; Oniisan, which are technically the polite ones that you'd use for another person's parents, but are also, I think, what you use to address them. Because I know those words, I can pick them out from sentences, but not much else is understandable, and it's not really important what I call them until I actually can speak, which probably won't be for at least a couple more months.

Just the thought of dealing with being a baby for that much longer is appalling.

* * *

About a week later, during one of Mother and Big Brother's visits, I finally figure out his name. He's blabbering at me in Japanese, and I can't understand most of it as usual, but then he slows down.

Carefully, he enunciates, clearly in the middle of a sentence already, "Big… brother… Sa-Su-Ke," and I freeze. He stares at me expectantly until Mother says something to him, and they leave the room.

And I just sit there in shock, because I've _heard_ the name 'Sasuke' before. In an anime. Where he's a character. One of my least favorite characters, actually.

But it can't be – there's no way. Naruto is a fictional world, and it's not like 'Sasuke' can't be a normal Japanese name. The author had to get it from somewhere. He's the wrong age right now, anyway. The Sasuke from Naruto was twelve.

Except I can't really forget about the possibilities, and I can never really get a good look at 'Sasuke', because he moves around so much. And kids do tend to age.

Well, I fall asleep after that, but the next time they show up, I'm ready. I'm going to get a good look at 'Sasuke'.

So I wait, and he climbs his way into my crib like always. I make my eyes focus on his face, comparing against what I remember as the anime character, and…

Crap. Pale skin, dark eyes, black hair, forming duck-butt hairstyle… He looks exactly like a younger version of the character.

Which means that I must be in the world of Naruto. As in, the horrible, terrible, action-filled anime world.

…As an Uchiha. As in, the Uchiha who are all, except for Sasuke, massacred by Itachi after he goes evil. And Itachi must be Bigger Brother, since I'm pretty sure they didn't have any other siblings… Until me. Why do I have to be an Uchiha, anyway? I don't even _like _them! Of course, most of them will die, which doesn't actually help, since Itachi could decide to kill me too.

Even just what I know of the show, from watching it idly every now and then, the story is very violent. And I only saw the first series – after Sasuke defected, the story ended and was continued in a different show. I never actually saw much of the second one, so I don't even know much about what'll happen. I'm not delusional enough to think that what happens after where I stopped watching won't matter. Except… a friend of mine gave me one of the later volumes of the Naruto manga, and I read it purely to appease her, even though it was about my least favorite characters: the Uchiha. In it, somebody was explaining to Sasuke that Itachi didn't just randomly decide to kill the Uchiha; they were planning a coup d'état, and he'd been ordered to kill them. Which is really just even worse for me, isn't it? It means that I'll most likely die again, and I'd really rather not find out what happens when you die after being reincarnated. I could end up in a worse world.

So I'll have to learn to fight… Which is going to be a lot of work, and I really doubt that I'll be any good at it; supposed 'genius' Uchiha genes versus a really lazy mind, one that was ridiculously bad at anything involving physical activity or strategy even in a world much less focused on them than this one. Much less at something that I have no experience in at all – chakra, which is probably what the indefinable thing I can sense in everybody is.

The Uchiha genes have no chance.

* * *

For a while after my revelation, I was jittery with anticipation and yearning to do something. Soon, though, I had to face a major factor: I was still a baby. I couldn't move much beyond my arms and legs, could barely babble nonsense, and my brain still couldn't process enough data from my eyes, so everything was blurry.

Basically, I'd have to wait for longer. A lot longer, actually, seeing as I wouldn't be able to do anything at all for well over half a year, and even longer if I didn't want to be suspicious – which I didn't. If I did stuff too early, too well, they'd think I was either an imposter or a prodigy. Seeming like an imposter would be bad for obvious reasons, but I didn't want to be a prodigy, either, because prodigies get a lot of pressure. This was true even in my original world, and probably more so in the Naruto one.

Even if the Uchiha are all going to die while I'm still fairly young, I don't know how long I'd have to deal with them treating me like… Well. Like they treat Itachi, probably.

But I couldn't just let myself be at the proper level for my age, because the story – and the beginning of the really bad stuff – starts when Naruto and Sasuke are twelve, and if I'm at the proper skill level, I'll be screwed and mostly unable to defend myself. So even though they're a couple years older than me, I have to _at least_ keep up with Sasuke, which is hardly going to be easy, while keeping my skill level and much-older mentality a secret from everybody. It should be possible, in theory; I read somewhere that Kakashi became a genin at five without cheating like I am, and Itachi did the same at seven.

Then again, even though Naruto and Sasuke are shown as really weak in comparison to a bunch of other ninja, they're actually ridiculously fit, especially compared to the standards of my original world. So this is all assuming I can even match them at all, even being sixteen years older than my body. More likely than not, they'll leave me behind once they get old enough that I don't have such an unfair advantage, if not earlier simply due to this being their only life, the only thing they've ever known.

It's my life now too, but I'll never stop being affected by my first life in a considerably nicer environment. I'll just have to adjust, have to be strong anyway, or I'll never stand a chance.

Except that I still have about a year to wait, at least. I don't know how fast babies, Uchiha babies especially, are supposed to develop, and I have nothing to use as a way to make sure I'm not going too fast or slow. Meaning, of course, that I'll have to make it up as I go along.

Story of my new life, apparently.


	2. Chapter 2

**Amazingly enough, I actually wrote a second chapter. Also, if you couldn't tell, I'm bad with chapter names. With names in general, actually, and I have no idea what her name could mean in various languages, so... Anyway, I had been planning on trying to be more detailed, but it's looking like there are going to be a bunch of timeskips until we get to the beginning of the series. There's just not many interesting things I can write about when she's not even a year old; nobody wants to read her misery at being stuck in diapers. So we'll probably make it to the series at around chapter five or six, when she'll be nine. Also, I tried to come up with a good explanation of chakra. I probably failed.**

**Chapter Two (Ni, dos, etc): Yay, Time Skips!**

Being a baby is _humiliating_. I know this very, very well after spending about a year as one. And I'm not even done yet. At least I can see perfectly fine now.

I've spent much more time asleep than awake, due to the strain thinking puts on my baby brain, but it's getting to the point where I can mostly stay awake now. Also, the boredom has given me more than enough chances to mess around with chakra – something that is incredibly strange for a person who has never had it before. It's oddly natural-feeling, though, rather than feeling like it shouldn't be there. If I hadn't already been in a world without it, I'm not sure I would have even been able to notice it very well at all. Trying to control it is interesting, because it's so odd – it's not actually difficult, but it's like… It's hard to explain. Basically, it feels like it's an adult dealing with a small child trying to tell them that 'No! This is the way you're supposed to do it!' when they know that they're right. Because it just _is, _and the way it _is_ works, so it doesn't understand why you're trying to change that, but it'll indulge you anyway. And then as soon as you stop paying attention, it goes back to the way it was. This makes chakra sound sentient, which it isn't, not really, but there's really no better way I can think of to explain it.

And everybody's chakra has a different feel to it – like their chakra has shaped itself to mirror their personality. My own is too constant, too personal for me to really tell; it's like trying to say what your own personality is, which I've never been good at. Explaining the feeling in words is difficult, but possible with other people. For example, I know my own family's really well, since they're about the only people I've gotten a chance to examine. I think Sasuke is too young (I found out that he's four right now, so three years older than me) for his chakra to have really developed a personalized feeling to it, but it's kind of like a kitten right now – and he would hate that comparison, but it fits so well – it's excitable, bouncy, playful, and oddly affectionate for how his personality was in the show. Itachi, though, I just love Itachi's chakra; it's hard to compare it to just one thing, because it's really cold and foreboding on the surface, but on the inside, it's surprisingly warm and kind. It's like a fire trying desperately to survive in the middle of a blizzard, I suppose. I'm not sure how long it'll be able to survive. Mikoto and Fugaku – Mother and Father, technically, but they've never really been able to convince my teenage mind to let them override my first parents – both have kind of boring chakra; like ashes. Mikoto's ashes are mostly cold, like a fire that just faded out over time, but still have a small fire burning in the center, hidden by ashes until somebody goes poking. Fugaku's are like a fire that somebody threw dirt over, trying to put out, and mostly succeeded, except that they're still warm under the layer of dirt.

I haven't really been able to inspect anybody else's chakra; Mikoto has kept me in the house except for occasional trips out into the compound (too short for me to be able to do anything) every now and then. Which doesn't help with the boredom.

But at least I finally found out my own name: Reika. It's weird to think of that as my name, though, since it sounds Japanese and I still think of myself as American. I was also able to see what I look like now, which is basically a typical Uchiha (baby version); black eyes, pale skin, oddly fluffy black hair. And I don't have the weird eye-lines like Itachi and Fugaku, though that might just be due to age. So yeah, I'll probably just be 'generic Uchiha female number 1' once I get older.

And I was able to start showing that I could talk about a month or two ago. They probably think I'm slow, actually, since I waited until they were getting worried that I wasn't talking. I wanted as long as possible to learn Japanese anyway, which was thankfully surprisingly easy. But now they've started talking about motor control and stuff, so I'm planning on starting to walk today. It'll be awesome, because now I can start walking (not to mention move on to being potty trained), but also probably suck because I have to figure out how to seem bad at it.

But we're Uchiha, and I'm left alone to amuse myself for large amounts of time each day, so I can probably just stagger into a room with Mikoto and they'll assume I just figured it out on my own.

…That'll probably be a lot easier, so I'll just do that.

Right now seems as good a time as any, so I heave myself unsteadily to my feet – even if I already know how to walk, I haven't done it in a year, much less in a baby body, which are really disproportional – and stumble out of my room.

I'm hardly being quiet, but as I enter the living room, where I can kind of tell that Mikoto's and Fugaku's chakras are, Mikoto is in the middle of a sentence. "-Should wait and see before-" She cuts herself off as she notices me, turning to smile calmly in my direction.

As soon as they realize that I'm walking, Fugaku grunts something like 'about time' and walks out past me. I'm not actually a little kid, I know that he's not my father, I know that's just his personality, I know that walking isn't actually anything to be proud of, but none of that stops his dismissal from hurting a surprising amount. Mikoto quickly switches into proud-mother mode, trying to distract me, but I don't really respond much.

Not because of Fugaku's dismissal, but out of curiosity. I want to know what they were talking about, which could have been anything; something about Itachi or Sasuke that I don't know about, my own slow development… the coup. Right now, it's been about three, probably four, years since the Kyuubi attack. They might already be planning, or at least considering, a coup d'état.

Which is what leads to the massacre.

I want to know more about it, but Mikoto will never give me a straight answer if I ask, so I don't. Instead, I let her distract me for about an hour before walking back to my room, where I can think in private (at least a little bit private, anyway).

Originally, I'd just been trying to think of ways that I could survive the massacre once it happened, but now… I didn't really want it to happen at all. If it happened, Mikoto and Fugaku, who would never be my parents, but I did care about, would die. And Sasuke, even though he'd been my least favorite character, I actually really cared about – I didn't want him to lose his parents, or for Itachi to have to kill the clan and go rogue (And Sasuke would turn from this adorable little four-year-old with kitten-chakra into a gloomy twelve-year-old with serious issues). It was surprisingly hard to spend a year as a baby with people and not like them even the slightest bit.

It's not even just the massacre that I have to stop – because if I stop the massacre but let the coup happen, a lot of people will die. Even then, the Uchiha will probably still lose. So I have to stop the coup from ever being planned.

But how am I supposed to stop it? I'm barely one now, and the massacre is in four years; I'll be five. And it's not like I can tell them 'Oh, you know that coup d'état you're planning? Yeah, you should stop that, because I have knowledge of the future and it'll end with a thirteen year old killing all of you'. Yeah, they'd take that well.

I just don't know enough about their motivations. Even if I did, what can I do? They'll never listen to me, and I can't affect every member that wants a coup, especially not without being allowed out of the house. At best, I suppose I might be able to say good things about the village, which _might _stop them, but probably not. And it would be very suspicious for a toddler that's barely been out of their house, much less around the village, to start spouting reasons that they should like the Leaf. They haven't even actually told me that we're in a village named 'Konohagakure' yet, though that could be due to the fact that I've only been speaking for a couple of months.

There's just… nothing I can do. Not without revealing myself, especially, and I really, really don't want to do that. Maybe it makes me a bad person, that I'd let several hundred people die rather than face the chance of dying myself. Maybe it just makes me stupid, since I was willing to die for one single kid in my last life, and probably at least one kid will end up dying in the massacre.

But even if I did tell them, stop hiding, there's no guarantee that they'd listen; they could just ignore what I tell them and kill me. In which case, it would be absolutely useless that I said anything at all. So I'll just have to figure out something to do that doesn't involve revealing my biggest secret.

Well, all I have to do is get them to stop planning a coup without knowing why they're doing it, as a toddler, and without giving myself away. And I only have four years to do it.

No big deal.

* * *

A one-year old, even one with a teenage mind, can't actually do much. They can't really walk very well, they're still not too good at speaking, and they have almost no chakra. As such, I waste another year just trying to get to the point where I can start training. It's not like being two is much better, but at least now I can properly communicate without it being suspicious, and Mikoto actually lets me and Sasuke, who's now five, go outside the house (if not outside the compound).

Basically over the entire year, I'd only done a couple things; the first was to figure out what I was going to specialize in, since doing everything would be great, but unrealistic. With the Sharingan, which I was definitely going to try to activate, I would, in theory, most likely be able to do anything at a fairly high level – since the Sharingan, in its various stages, can see the chakra system, can see muscle movement and use that to predict movement, see through and cast Genjutsu, and copy any Nin or Taijutsu it sees. Although having so many options was nice, it was also very bad, because I am incredibly indecisive. Like, to the point where I would have a panic attack when I was supposed to choose my classes for each school year.

So, to help with deciding on a specialty, since I didn't think even Uchiha tried to do all of those at a truly master level, I'd tried to think of what would be most useful for my situation. Which did not help in the slightest. Thinking about it, I'd realized that it I'd prefer to avoid fighting as much as possible, since I'll probably never be able to fight, not after living in a situation where fighting was as ghastly as it was Before. I'd figured that I could specialize in stealth – one of the few things the Sharingan would not really help at, true, but then I wouldn't have to fight and I could just run away and hide. Of course, I would then also not be _able _to fight, and with the way the story goes, just running and hiding won't be good enough, especially not if I want to help, which I'm not too sure about, but I do care a little.

Anyway, I'd eventually decided against stealth, since I need a fighting specialty. Then I'd remembered, in the anime, during the Chuunin exams, when Sasuke and Lee fight, Lee says to Sasuke that it doesn't matter that the Sharingan lets Sasuke see his moves, because Sasuke's body couldn't keep up anyway. And after the almost anime-esque way everything had seemed to slow down right before I'd died Before, going through that in another fight – another death – would be horrible. It wasn't like speed was ever a bad thing, after all – especially with sharp things like kunai to make up for a lack of strength, if necessary.

So I'd made my specialty speed, but other than that, I don't actually know enough specifics to know what else I could attempt to master. And there was just so much; any of the five elemental ninjutsu, or genjutsu, which there's almost nothing about, or seals like the ones the Fourth Hokage and Jiraiya use, or even Medical ninjutsu. So I'd decided to wait until I could try more, or at least learnabout more before really going into anything more specific.

However, choosing speed is both a bad and a good thing; a bad thing because it's not something that can be trained in private in my room, but a good thing because, to some extent, it can be excused as just playing.

In the meantime, I'd started trying something I _could _do in my room: chakra. After trying to use chakra the first time – to stick to a wall – I'd noticed the incredible amount of chakra needed. Before that, I hadn't really noticed chakra levels; it was just there, and I'd vaguely noted that it was much easier to feel Mikoto's, Fugaku's, and Itachi's than it was to feel Sasuke's, but never really paid much attention to it. When I'd tried to use chakra to stick a hand to a wall, I had run out of chakra almost immediately. So I'd decided to work on easier things to build up chakra. The only things I knew were from the show, so I started working on sticking paper – in lieu of a leaf – to my hand. It still exhausts me, and I pretty much sleep more than I'm awake, but I can actually get the paper to stick properly before running out of chakra now, so I guess it's working.

Of course, simply working on chakra amount and control is hardly going to make me good enough to manage during the series, so I need to branch out more, especially now that I can walk a little bit better. The problem with this is that I can't do anything outside, since I'm always with Sasuke and there's always at least one adult within sight, and I can't exactly work on taijutsu or throwing ability in my room. At the moment, it doesn't matter as much that I can't practice ninjutsu or genjutsu, since not only do I not know how, I doubt that I have enough chakra yet.

It's all incredibly frustrating. Except that, now that Mikoto has started letting Sasuke and me go outside, I might be able to sneak away. It's not likely, considering how protective the Uchiha seem to be of children, but if I can convince Sasuke to play Hide 'N Seek with me – here called simply 'Stealth' – I can probably go to the Uchiha clan library without them knowing. Maybe.

And this is assuming they won't notice the missing scrolls and books anyway.

But either way, I guess I get to try today, since Mikoto is letting us go outside now. Since Itachi is gone on a mission, and most of the members of the police force are out for something (that I obviously wasn't told), it should be possible.

Sasuke grabs my hand and starts pulling me behind him as we walk outside – I was still two, after all, and he was five. Even with the Police Force mostly gone, there are a lot of Uchiha around; some of them became shopkeepers and things like that instead of becoming a ninja or joining the Police Force. That'll make it more difficult.

"Hey, Aniki," I usually call both Sasuke and Itachi 'Aniki', meaning 'big brother', which Sasuke also calls Itachi, while Itachi calls Sasuke 'Otouto', meaning 'little brother', and both call me 'Imouto', meaning 'little sister', "Wanna play Stealth?"

We'd played Stealth a couple of times before, always inside, so it wasn't suspicious that I was asking. He still always acts like I don't know how, though.

"Huh?" Sasuke twists to look at me without letting go of my hand. "Okay. Not it!" he calls quickly.

"Not- Aww," I fake a pout. "I wanted to hide!" It doesn't matter, actually, since I do need to actually play for a while, to make it look realistic. Not to mention that Sasuke has no real hope of hiding from me for long, since I can sense chakra and he doesn't know to hide it yet.

He giggles slightly. "Well, you should have been faster, then," he says, letting go of my hand reluctantly. "I'll go hide! Close your eyes." He waits for me to obey before continuing. "You wait for a little, first, and then come looking, okay?"

He runs off without waiting for an answer, and I count to twenty mentally – in English – before starting to search. Although I can sense chakra, I'm not very good at it yet, so I have to be pretty close before I can feel low amounts like Sasuke has. Well, he has low levels of chakra compared to the adult Uchiha, anyway. I don't know how it compares to civilian levels.

We're still stuck inside the compound, but the compound is really big; it has the houses of about three-hundred Uchiha, as well as the clan library and the Police Force building. It was also surrounded by fairly thick forest on three sides, which is where we see Itachi and Sasuke doing target practice in the anime, or at least somewhere in it. The fourth side was, naturally, the entrance and exit to the compound. Well, the official one, anyway.

Occupied with looking for Sasuke, I'm not really paying attention to the ground, so naturally I trip over a bump in the ground. It's not even a rock, just slightly raised dirt. In my original, teenage body, this wouldn't have been a problem; I could have caught myself easily. As a toddler, it wasn't so easy: the proportions were all wrong, and my coordination was still terrible, and any sense of balance I'd had Before was apparently gone now. So, to minimize damage, I twist to land on my side instead of throwing up my hands to catch myself. If I'd done that, I would have at least ended up with scratched palms, while this way, I would maybe have a bruise on my shoulder.

Either way, I pick myself up quickly, more annoyed at myself for tripping than anything else, and certainly not going to burst into tears and wait for an adult to calm me down, as a normal two-year old might have. I'm sure I surprised everybody around, but I could probably brush it off as trying to be like Itachi if I needed.

Finding Sasuke quickly after that – he was just hiding behind some crates – we switch so that I hide and he looks. For this one, I choose a fairly obvious hiding place. For the next one, it'll be a little bit less obvious, and so on. After a couple more times of this, each time I hide making it harder to find me, I can tell that he's getting a little bored, so I decide to go now, hopefully before he gets too uninterested.

On the previous times we'd been allowed out into the compound, we'd just run around aimlessly, and I'd gotten the chance to locate the library, so I knew – well, I knew mostly where it was… Either way, when it's my turn to hide again, I pick a place behind some lumber. This way, none of them can see me, and I have a fairly straight shot along the path to the library.

But maybe this is a bad idea – I don't know what'll happen if they catch me, and they might notice things missing if I take anything, and there's no way I can get around all these people, and I don't have experience in these kinds of things, and I'm in a clumsy two-year-old body, how can I—

Well, I certainly won't be able to do it if I have a panic attack. I make myself stop thinking about it – thinking about what I'm about to do makes me want to either hyperventilate or start crying – and force myself to take deep breaths until I calm down some and my heart stops trying to beat out of my chest.

It should be okay. If I get caught, then I can probably act innocent enough to maybe get myself out of it, and I'm the Clan Head's daughter; it probably won't be too severe even if they don't believe me. Most likely, they'll applaud my skill and ambition, at least for a two-year-old. The biggest reason I don't want to get caught is the same one as why I'm trying to sneak in to get scrolls, which is that I'd really rather prefer not to be seen as a prodigy.

Okay. I breathe in deeply. I can do this. Sasuke's feet run off in the opposite direction, and I slowly slip out from behind my cover, watching the adults carefully. Slowly, slowly… I slink along the walls next to me, hoping that everybody else can't hear my heart as well as I can. All I have to do is get to the turn, go a little bit more, and cross the street. That's all. None of them seem to have noticed me yet, but they could just be messing with me.

Almost to the turn, one of them turns around sharply in my direction, and I duck down behind a conveniently placed barrel, slapping my hands over my mouth to muffle a gasp. I freeze there, not even breathing, waiting for him to acknowledge me, because surely he had noticed, right? A moment passes, and nothing happens, and I cautiously peek over the top of the barrel. I expect him to be standing there, right in front of me with his arms crossed. He isn't. Instead, he's across the walkway talking to somebody, his back to me.

Letting out the breath, I continue, quickly making it around the corner. But there's not as much to hide behind over here, and definitely not enough people to hide in a crowd; if it had been the main streets of Konoha, I probably could have managed it, but there are maybe a couple dozen people on the entire street. With twenty people around, even non-ninja, there's very little chance that none of them will see me.

But I have to take that chance, or wait until I have another opportunity to sneak away, one that might not be for a while. I could just wait, try again later – I have three years, at least. Except that I'll probably need more time than that, so I already don't have enough; waiting even longer to do it would make it even worse. Except, if I try only to get caught, I might as well have not bothered, so why try at all with so much chance of getting caught?

Because of the chance of success, of course. But I don't _want _to, and even if I do make it in to the library, I would then have to find the proper scrolls or books and get back out with them, and then all the way back to Sasuke. Which wouldn't actually be much harder, and I could just pretend I was lost and let somebody bring me back to my house, and I, unfortunately, really do need to know more about chakra and jutsu.

Okay, so now how do I actually get to the library, is the question. There's no clear, blinking, 'this is the best way', obviously. Meaning that I just have to try to be invisible while being perfectly in sight. Awesome.

Whimpering quietly, I slide along the wall, staying as much in the shadows as possible. I shrink in on myself, curling into a ball as much as I can without making it harder to walk, and doing the same with my chakra. Clearly, it's a good thing I decided against stealth, but so far none of them seem to have noticed me.

I make it to across from the library without any of them glancing in my direction – thankfully, since they wouldn't have been able to not see me. But now I have to cross the walkway, and I'm so, _so _going to get caught here. I start across anyway, scarcely breathing and praying – figuratively – that none of them will notice me. Or bump into me.

Somehow, miraculously, I step into the library without being seen. I immediately slip off to follow the side wall, since there's most likely a guard masquerading as a librarian. Even Before, there were librarians watching, so how could there not be in this world?

I sneak through the shelves, wary of seeing another person, though there don't seem to be any, and hope vaguely that I can find something useful. In all of my worrying about getting in, I hadn't really thought about what I wanted to get information on, much less where in the library I'd need to look. I guess… probably the best ones to find will be on chakra use – not ninjutsu, but more general ways. And probably taijutsu forms, too, since I'll eventually be able to practice.

Of course, those wouldn't be anywhere near each other, so I set out looking for a chakra-seeming section. Amazingly enough, it doesn't take me long to find a bunch of scrolls on chakra, titled rather obviously as 'Beginner Chakra Use I', 'Beginner Chakra Use II', and so on. And then I run into another problem; where am I supposed to hide these? Just the first two are about the same size as my entire torso, I'm so tiny.

Well, I shrug, stuffing them up my shirt – just the first two, which are probably enough – it's not like I can put them anywhere else. After making sure that they wouldn't fall out, and don't ask how, I go looking for taijutsu scrolls. Skill or not, I am the luckiest person _ever_ – to make up for this crappy life, maybe? – as I find the taijutsu section soon after, and without even running into another person.

Where I have to take back some of my luck because, naturally, being the Uchiha clan library, there's a couple dozen different types of taijutsu, each with its own series of scrolls. Panicking, since I've already taken far too much time, I search for anything that looks simple or beginner. Fortunately, I soon find a series titled 'Beginner Style', and take the first scroll – I probably won't need more than that for a while.

Securing my new prize in my shirt with the others, I set out back to Sasuke. On my way out, I see another scroll, one I hadn't even thought of, with the ridiculous title of 'Starting with Sharingan'. I debate whether or not to take it – I already have three scrolls, but I'm probably not going to get any other chances, so…

I end up leaving with four scrolls.

I make it back to the turn before being found. It's not too bad, though, because I spew a stream of something like, "I was playing Stealth with Aniki, and he always finds me fast and I wanted a good hiding spot but then I didn't know where I was, and I couldn't find Aniki and-" And they bring me back to the house before leaving me to find Sasuke. Uchiha weren't big on coddling. As far as I know, they didn't suspect a thing.

So I skip up behind Sasuke and jokingly gloat about how he couldn't find me, my hiding spot was so good, and hide how edgy I still am. Because doing that really sucked, and I lament my new life in a world of freaking ninja once again.

And I'll never admit that it was, maybe, just a little bit of fun, too.


	3. Chapter 3

**Amazing, another chapter! I haven't quit yet! That's not really saying much, of course, that I've gotten three chapters, especially when compared to people who have close to a hundred... But whatever. Also, random tense change - I used to be using present tense, 'I am' 'says' 'does', etc, but now I've switched to slightly more past tense - 'I was', 'said', 'did', and so on. I just like it better, but I don't really care enough to change the first two chapters, so. I wanted to add in some fun moments, but I seem to have an inability to think of any, so this is the best you get. A probably badly-written game of Ninja. It's fairly fun and carefree... until the end where Reika decided that she had to angst. Well, whatever works. By the way, I don't actually have any kind of a beta or anything, so there might be mistakes I didn't catch. I'd appreciate being told about them, because I'm a perfectionist and don't like making mistakes. Also, it seems like I have a lot to say in my AN's... until I actually start writing one, and then I completely forget all of the things I'd planned on saying. Wait! I almost forgot: I cannot draw in the slightest; if I tried I'd be lucky to get something humanoid. So I used a character creation thing on Deviant Art to make as close as it could to how I view Reika, pre-time-skip and post-time-skip - I'll post a link to them on my profile. Eventually.  
**

**Anyway, have another chapter! (I don't know why you guys like this monstrosity of mine enough to read it, but whatever.)**

**Chapter Three:**

Itachi had just passed the Chuunin exam, at ten years old. It was impressive, almost terrifying. But Sasuke and I were still five and two, and we didn't really care about that. What we _did _care about was the fact that he was getting busier. Even when he didn't have missions, Itachi was almost constantly training, and Sasuke and I were going to make him take a break.

We just had to figure out how.

It wasn't like we could forcibly make him – he'd have to be willing to go along with it, so that was obviously out. We didn't even need to try that one.

He wasn't even close to absentminded enough for us to just make him forget that he was supposed to be training.

"Aniki!" Sasuke said as we approached. It was still early in the morning, and Itachi was supposed to leave to train soon. We were going to keep him from doing that.

"Aniki!" I parroted. We slid away from each other slightly, to stand in front of and to either side of Itachi. For maximum distraction capabilities, of course.

I bounced slightly in place, tugging on Itachi's pants – I was ridiculously short, so I had to find a way to distract him other than line of sight. "Wanna play a game, Aniki?"

Sasuke wasn't that much taller than me, but he was closer to Itachi's height. He made sure to stand on his toes and wave his arms a lot accordingly. "Yeah! We should play a game," he agreed. We shared a glance. Most of the games we played were secretly really early ninja training, which would just remind Itachi… "We could play… Shōgi!"

I gave him an incredulous look. Neither of us had a chance against Itachi at Shōgi. He just shrugged at me. Well, fine. "Aniki! Play Shōgi with us!" We'd see if it worked.

Itachi just sighed at us. "Forgive me, Sasuke, Reika." He brushed past us. "I have to train. I will play with you later, okay?"

He walked out of the house, disappearing from sight quickly.

Sasuke and I shared a frustrated look.

And doing the opposite – asking him to help _us _train – didn't work any better.

It was more like asking him to help Sasuke train, actually, since I was two. So Sasuke went up to him. "Aniki, can you help me?" He gave Itachi a despondent look to make it convincing. He actually did need help, but not really as much as planned on making it seem.

"Forgive me, Sasuke," Itachi said, clearly rushed. "Again, next time."

And he left quickly. We hadn't even had a chance.

Not even our cuteness was enough – Itachi was much too good at ignoring it. When we'd tried once, he hadn't even looked at either of us, so it had been pointless. The next, he _had _looked at us, but didn't even seem to notice. Clearly, he was skilled.

We'd thought about just being annoying enough that he would give in to get us to stop, but he never stayed very long anyway. There's no way we'd have enough time for that.

So we just gave up. Itachi was obviously too dedicated for us to get him to take a break. We stopped trying, since there was no point. Just because we had accepted this didn't mean we were happy about it, though. In fact, we were quite melancholy about it. And we'd stopped trying.

Apparently, to Itachi – who had known the entire time what we were doing – this was very worrying. After so many attempts, and then we just gave up? So he got kind of worried. It was possible that this was another try, but it wasn't really the right style…

Naturally, Itachi, being a good big brother despite appearances, decided to spend time with us, just in case. Meaning that we got exactly what we'd been trying to manage… as soon as we'd stopped trying.

There was a fair amount of irony there.

But we couldn't really be upset about it – Itachi was finally taking a break! Even if it was just for a couple of hours. And he was spending time with us. We were equally happy about that.

The problem was… we had no idea what to do.

"Then…" Itachi smirked slightly. "Would you like to play Shōgi?"

He was obviously making fun of our previous attempt, so I frowned at him. "You know we don't."

"What do you want to do, Aniki?" Sasuke asked.

"Anything is fine." Itachi was clearly not going to decide.

I considered contesting his claim of 'anything', but he might go along with it anyway, so… we just sat in silence for a while. Neither Sasuke nor I had any idea what to do now that Itachi had actually agreed, and Itachi was making us choose.

"If Aniki doesn't mind," I shrugged, "I guess we could play Ninja or Stealth."

It sounded stupid to ask a ninja to play 'Ninja', since at this point 'Ninja' was usually just a kid's game. It was supposed to be similar to being a ninja, obviously, but it was just glorified tag, typically. However, Clan children generally played a more complicated version, with fake kunai and shuriken and traps, sometimes even with pre-set pretend jutsu. So it was more like an early version of training.

That, of course, just meant that true ninja, when they 'played', had reason to be mean. Actual Chuunin Itachi was probably leagues ahead of Sasuke and me. We didn't really care.

Sasuke perked up. "Can we play Ninja?" He asked excitedly. Playing Ninja was the 'thing', after all.

"Of course," Itachi agreed easily. I had a feeling he'd known we'd pick that.

Because we were Uchiha, even though we were kids, we were expected to show a certain level of decorum. So no running around and shouting in the middle of the compound. Normally, this would have eliminated Ninja as a game we could play, since we were never officially allowed out of the compound. The key word there, however, is 'officially'. Itachi had no problems with sneaking us out.

Well, he didn't even have to do that – really, all he had to do was bring us with him. It wasn't terribly difficult.

So we went to the forest around the compound. The forest was also technically owned by the Uchiha, even if it wasn't in the compound, so it was classified as 'safe'. So the adults ignored whenever anybody 'snuck' out to the forest, as long as they stayed in the forest.

Sasuke soon assigned Itachi to be the 'missing-nin', while Sasuke and I were just 'ninja'. If this had been tag, it would have meant that both Sasuke and I were 'it', and were supposed to 'tag' Itachi. Because this was 'ninja', we were supposed to 'kill' Itachi, and he was allowed to fight back, rather than just running. It made it a lot more difficult, and was why Sasuke and I were on the same team against just Itachi.

We all had wooden, blunted kunai and shuriken, as well as string to stand in for ninja wire if we wanted to make traps with it. The string was strong enough to hold up other objects, without actually being dangerous like ninja wire. Ninja wire was surprisingly sharp, and actually really easy to hurt yourself with. They'd never showed stuff like that in the anime.

Sasuke and I were almost certainly going to lose – the only way we wouldn't was if Itachi let us win, after all. And we were still pretty bad at working together; the best we managed was creating openings for the other by accident. But that was kind of the point of this. People who played together learned each other, and it was a lot easier to learn how somebody fought when you knew how they play-fought. It was why I'd never understood the level of isolation the Uchiha kept their kids at – I'd never even met any of the other Clan kids, much less played 'ninja' with them.

Anyway, we started the game in one of the clearings, and Itachi… didn't move. It was almost insulting, but I figured that attacking him head-on was obviously a trap. I ran-stumbled into the trees to the side instead, and heard as Sasuke gave a battle cry, threw some of his blunted kunai – shuriken were harder – and ran at Itachi. I also heard as Itachi dodged the charge and tripped Sasuke, almost casually. The kunai had probably all gone wide, but I wasn't sure.

Sasuke spat dirt out of his mouth as he pushed himself up before moving to join me in the trees. Itachi had to have known where we were, as neither of us was being particularly stealthy, but he stayed in the center of the clearing.

He was probably giving us time to plan on purpose, the jerk. I waddled over to Sasuke. 'Waddled' because I was still two and couldn't walk well.

"We need a plan," I said to Sasuke quietly, even though Itachi could probably still hear me. I knew that I should probably have been faking being worse at talking than I was, but I really couldn't bear to, not now that I could communicate properly.

"Right," Sasuke nodded in acknowledgement. "…What kind of plan? Aniki won't get hit by anything…"

That was a good question. I thought about it for a moment, but everything that I could think of wouldn't work on Itachi. We could set up traps in the forest, but then how did we get him over there? He obviously wasn't going to let us lure him into a trap.

Neither of us was any good with projectiles yet, so that was probably useless. Basically, it was completely pointless.

"I guess… you run up to him while I throw kunai?" I offered, shrugging slightly.

Sasuke wrinkled his nose. "You're no good at throwing."

"Neither are you!"

"I'm better than you."

I spluttered wordlessly for a moment. "You're faster than me."

"Aniki is faster than either of us, so that doesn't matter," Sasuke argued.

"Fine," I agreed, sighing. "I'll go, if you really don't want to." As Sasuke cheered quietly, I glanced in Itachi's direction, suddenly afraid he was sneaking up on us. He wasn't, since he was still standing there and we'd agreed that he was definitely not allowed real jutsu.

I dug most my kunai and shuriken out and gave them to Sasuke. I kept one kunai out to carry myself. "Here, since you already used a bunch."

He nodded slightly, still with a triumphant grin on his face. I rolled my eyes at him and sneaked away to circle around Itachi slightly. Well, I tried. Every other step or so, I'd step on something that crunched obnoxiously, and I couldn't figure out what it was.

Like before, Sasuke gave a battle cry and threw kunai, but didn't run at Itachi this time. I hadn't even thought of that – making it look like Sasuke was seriously attacking again. Remembering belatedly that Sasuke wasn't attacking because I was supposed to, I lurched out of the trees at Itachi. I skipped the yell, though. And I nearly tripped at least twice, and I'm sure Itachi was smirking at me. It was probably like I was running in slow-mo to him.

After what seemed like an inordinately long amount of time, I finally reached Itachi, and lunged at him, trying to stab him in the stomach. I was ready to stop and twist if he dodged and tripped me, like he had with Sasuke. So when he didn't, it caught me off guard. Instead, he leaned down, grabbed me around the middle, and spun me over his shoulder.

I'll admit, I squealed rather childishly and dropped my kunai. But I was two – I was totally allowed. He'd apparently been paying attention, too – he'd dropped me so that I could still land on my feet. I did, and stumbled forward before catching myself.

It was surprisingly annoying, being played with like this. Grabbing one of Sasuke's fallen kunai from the ground, I spun and threw it at approximately where Itachi's face should be. At such close range, even with my bad aim, the kunai was perfectly positioned to have hit him in the throat.

Too bad he moved. After dodging easily, Itachi moved forward, deflected my attempt at a punch, and bopped me on the top of the head. Not very hard – in fact, it was barely enough to be called a hit at all.

I pretended to be hurt anyway, faking a pained groan and clasping my hands to my head, before running back to the tree line. Itachi let me go, and I swear I heard him laugh. He'd probably never admit that, though. Technically, a 'death blow' like that should have disqualified me, but since we only had three players, it just put me on 'recovery'. That meant that I had to wait ten minutes before doing anything else.

Once in the trees, I circled back around to Sasuke. "Sorry, Aniki," I told him. "Looks like you're on your own for a while."

Sasuke frowned at me fiercely. "That was stupid," he said, leaning down to thrust his face into mine. "You should be more careful!"

"Sorry, Aniki," I apologized again pitifully.

"Whatever," Sasuke said. He sighed. Glancing up in time to see Itachi's 'come here' gesture, Sasuke ran over to him. Just to get poked in the forehead.

Itachi shook his head at him. "Foolish little brother," he said affectionately. "What did you expect?"

Sasuke pouted up at him, hands pressed to his forehead protectively. "I didn't think you were going to hit me!"

"You should be more wary in battle," Itachi lectured, to which Sasuke started complaining.

I leaned against one of the trees and laughed. Itachi and Sasuke were _adorable _together, they really were. And they were so obviously brothers. It fit really well, like they'd never even had to think about it – they probably hadn't. And then there was me; technically, I was their younger sister, but I never really fit with either of them like they did with each other. I was usually just 'the youngest'.

It made sense, kind of. Itachi was the oldest, the prodigy, the Clan Heir, and the one who was 'useful'. Sasuke was the 'other one'; the one that still acted like a kid, that hadn't been pushed into being a ninja far too young, the one that had to be protected and smothered.

Not that I wasn't smothered even more, of course, but it was usually a 'Sasuke, watch your sister' kind of thing. Or when Mikoto wanted to use me as a doll. I didn't really act like a kid, and I wasn't as easily, casually affectionate as Sasuke. I wasn't as outgoing, either, and I preferred to simply follow behind and copy him. So I usually just got lumped in behind him ("Sasuke," they would say, or "Sasuke and Reika," never just "Reika," not unless I did something to cause it) or ignored.

Again, I didn't really mind – wasn't this what I'd wanted Before? A sibling that would take all the attention and let me hide in the background? It was just that before it would have been a younger sibling, and now it was two older ones. But I couldn't help but wonder – did they really love me too, or was I just there?

* * *

I turned three, somehow, while I wasn't looking. It was weird; even knowing what was going to happen, it was really easy to forget about all of it. Well, most of the adults around me were ninja, so if there was anything going on, they were hiding it from me, far better than I could figure it out.

I'd been trying to get them on to better terms with Konoha, but I didn't think I'd really done anything to help; not enough information, and what I did know, I couldn't act on without it being suspicious. It was a wonderful situation, truly.

However, Mikoto was leaving the compound today, to go shopping, and I was determined to get her to bring me with. I had Sasuke, who had recently turned six and was still adorable, as an accomplice, so I hoped that the force of dual puppy-dog eyes would be enough. We shared a faux meaningful look – we didn't actually communicate anything in it, but we wanted to seem cool – before walking into the kitchen where Mikoto was.

I paused at the entrance as Sasuke moved closer. "Mom?" he began, standing on tip-toes to see over the counter at her. It was a calculated move to look cute. We'd decided to wait until absolutely necessary to pull out the puppy-dog eyes, but there were other tactics.

"Yes, Sasuke-kun?" Mikoto replied calmly, looking up at him. She had called him Sasuke-chan before, which was more cutesy than using –kun, but he had decided that he was too old for that after turning six.

He smiled at her adoringly – also calculated for maximum convincingness. "Can Imouto and I go with you into town?" Seeing her immediate, somewhat negative, reaction, he batted his eyes cutely. "Please?"

That was my cue to help, so I slunk up next to her. "Please, Mom?" I added sweetly, pressing up against her leg. She never showed it, but she totally thought it was cute. "We really want to go with you."

Sasuke nodded vigorously in agreement, bobbing out of sight behind the counter each time. "We won't cause problems, promise!"

"We'll be perfect little angels," I agreed, staring up at her from my pitiful four-year-old height.

Mikoto hummed, clearly unconvinced. "You two think I don't know what you're doing?" She asked, smirking a little in amusement. I didn't care what anybody said, smirking was definitely an Uchiha thing. They all did it.

Sasuke gasped, faking a hurt look and overdoing it a little. "What do you mean?" he acted confused. "We're not doing anything."

I copied Sasuke's adoring smile. "We just want to spend more with you, Mom," I said. "We never spend much time together."

"Right!" he agreed quickly, disappearing behind the counter to run around it. "We want to spend time with you."

He hugged her around the middle – since he could actually reach – from the opposite side as me. I squirmed closer, wrapping my arms around her legs. We both looked up at her, using the only jutsu either of us knew, 'Puppy Dog no Jutsu', in unison.

It was extremely effective. We were obviously manipulating her, and she definitely knew, but she was a ninja; she could respect a manipulation tactic. I had to suppress a smirk as we saw her defenses crumble. "All right, fine," Mikoto acquiesced, shaking her head fondly. Sasuke didn't even bother to hide his cheer. "Clearly, I have no hope against the master manipulators that are my youngest children." Her tone was dryly amused.

"Hey," Sasuke protested. "I'm not a youngest!"

I leaned around Mikoto's legs to see him. "Yes you are," I scoffed. "Aniki is older than you."

Sasuke leaned to match me. "Yeah, but you're younger," he argued.

"So?" I challenged. "Just because you're not _the _youngest doesn't stop you from being _a_ youngest."

I could practically see Sasuke's hair fluffing in his annoyance. Somehow, even though I really did like Sasuke now, it was just so much fun to mess with him.

Mikoto laughed at us. I'm sure an argument between a six-year-old and a three-year-old was very amusing to her. "All right," she soothed. "The master manipulators that are my youngest and middle children, then." She put a hand on each of our backs, spinning us and pushing us towards the door. "Go get ready, and we'll go, okay?" She smiled, perfectly serene. I could tell that it was an act – she was worried about bringing us with her.

But I didn't say anything. I wanted to go into the village, even if she didn't want me to – maybe I could say more obvious things if I'd actually ever seen it. My biggest motivation was still halting the coup and stopping the massacre. It had to be.

I followed Sasuke as he cheered –quietly – and rushed out of the room to his room. Naturally, since we were part of a prideful clan, we wore different clothes around outsiders than what we just wore normally around the compound. Because apparently that makes sense to these people.

Whatever, it didn't matter. Except it did matter, because I couldn't wear the simple green shirt and black pants Mikoto usually let me. I had to wear a 'fancy' blouse and a skirt instead. It was ridiculous. But I was going to go into the village, and if I had to wear a skirt, I would wear a skirt.

So I went to my room to find proper clothing. Somehow, even though I was three and had never had to wear fancy clothes before, there was a perfectly fitting set of a dark green blouse and a fancy black skirt with a pattern of green flowers. How did I end up with so much green?

I changed quickly and let Mikoto pull my unruly hair into a ponytail as Sasuke waited impatiently. It was supposed to keep it from looking as messy as it usually did, but it didn't actually help much. Finally, after much fussing over Sasuke and me, she deemed us presentable.

Mikoto let us wander in a semi-circle around her while we were in the compound, but as soon as we left she grabbed each of our hands to keep us close. It was _interesting_ to see the village; I already knew, kind of, what it looked like, from watching the anime, but it was so different to actually see it. Not to mention the other things – the smells and sounds and chakra that pervaded the air. And there was so much chakra around. Even civilians had chakra, just low amounts, and there were, perhaps, more people around than I'd seen in this entire life so far. This wouldn't really matter, since I'd lived in a world where there were as many people as could be crammed into a single city, if it weren't for the chakra – it was almost overwhelming. Even without that, there were so many people, but it wasn't like a big city; it was still clear, no smog, and no cars either.

It was so weird. But I could use this, maybe.

"There are so many people!" I gasped in awe that wasn't entirely fake.

Sasuke didn't reply, too absorbed in looking at _everything_, but Mikoto smiled at me distractedly. "Isn't it incredible?" She got this distant, wistful look, like she wasn't actually seeing anything around us anymore.

I nodded vigorously – it was, but also as part of the act. I probably should have felt bad about how fake I was so much of the time. I didn't. "There are people everywhere!" I said breathlessly, tugging on her hand, before frowning slightly. "Mom?"

"Yes, Reika-chan?" She replied, looking through the wares at a fruit stand. I hesitated for a moment, wondering how I should word it.

"Why do you never let us leave the compound?" I asked quietly, adopting a shy, worried look.

Mikoto froze for a moment. "I'm letting you out of the compound right now, aren't I?" She answered cheerfully. I didn't miss how she'd avoided my question.

I dropped it anyway. For the moment, that was. Once we got back to the house, I'd ask again. "Oh. That's true!" I acted like I'd accepted her answer.

She let out a relieved breath that I was probably not supposed to have noticed. Clearly, it was a conversation she did not want to have. Unfortunately, it was one I really needed her to have with me. Maybe it would help.

I didn't say anything without prompting for the rest of the trip, acting like a perfect angel as Sasuke and I had promised. It was interesting, as well – nobody actually treated us badly, just strangely. Like a clan that hid out in their compound most of the time and rarely ventured out without a reason. Many of the reasons being duty as a ninja or as part of the Police Force, but since Mikoto was no longer an active ninja, I supposed that wouldn't apply as much. Not to mention, of course, that these were civilians; ninja and members of the Police Force would seem distant, inhuman. Not like a woman going shopping with her children.

The fact that they were civilians may have also had something to do with their polite treatment of us, though – if the ninja of the village had decided something against the Uchiha, the civilians might not know anything about it. I would probably never find out, since ninja were harder to observe without a good reason, and I had no reason.

Watching Mikoto, I could see her relax as we entered the compound, letting go of a lot of the apprehension she'd had since we'd left. Sasuke and I helped her put away the groceries, and Sasuke darted off to do whatever six-year-old boys do. I stayed.

"Mom?" I ventured tentatively. I wouldn't let her avoid the question this time, but I still had to keep up the hesitant, as if I was actually a child, act. Rather than let her respond, I continued, "Why do you rarely let us out of the compound?"

I changed the wording some; I wasn't going to let her use the same excuse this time. At the very least, I'd make her come up with an actual excuse, rather than just avoiding the question.

"What do you mean, honey?" Mikoto responded, obviously pretending to not know what I meant.

Of course she would; if you can't answer, evade. I guess I have to be more conspicuous. "I mean that you've only ever let me leave the compound once," I said, trying and failing to not sound reproving. "And we only stayed out for an hour."

She pursed her lips, thinking about it. Finally, she crouched to be on my level. "The other people don't really like us much, Reika," she said gently. I didn't fail to notice the missing honorific.

"They didn't _seem_ like they didn't like us," I said mulishly. I could at least try to get them to see that it wasn't the civilians' faults. "They were really nice."

"Of course they were," Mikoto tried. "But that's part of their job. They were just hiding their dislike."

…Okay, I couldn't prove that one wasn't true; it might actually have been. "Oh." I paused to seem like I was thinking. "But why do they not like us?" I did my best to sound child-like and confused – like a little kid who was just told that somebody didn't like them.

Mikoto sighed. "They just don't, Reika." She stood. "That's why we don't go out." Clearly, she didn't want to explain.

…Too bad for her then. "Yeah, but if they have a good reason and we never go out, then they'll never stop hating us!" I said doggedly. Hopefully, I could get her to convince me that it wasn't the fault of the Uchiha – clan pride practically required it.

"They don't have a good reason," she said heatedly before visibly forcing herself to calm down. Her chakra stayed agitated. "They think we did something that we didn't, okay?"

They think the Uchiha did something? I was completely confused, even with a lot more background than a normal child would have had.

"Oh," I said vaguely, taking a step back. What could the Uchiha have done – or rather, what could the village have thought the Uchiha had done? The coup, of course, but I didn't think so, not from so early on... I didn't think she was lying that they hadn't actually done it, anyway. She could have been, of course, since I was hardly a master at telling if somebody was lying. "… So then why don't we tell them that and make up?"

Mikoto leaned on the counter. "Because it's not that simple," she said tiredly. "Go play, Reika-chan, okay?"

And the honorific was back. I knew she wouldn't tell me any more, so I nodded obediently. I didn't say anything, just turned and walked out.

Hopefully, I had had some effect on her.


	4. Chapter 4

**So, it's kind of been awhile since my last update. Like, nearly a month. Oops? But I'm pretty bad at remembering to write, so this'll probably be fairly common. And I might still randomly quit on writing this - but when I actually do give up, I'll try to remember to change the summary to include 'discontinued'. Anyway, at the end this chapter, I included a bit original plot! Amazing, I know. It's not really going to be a large part of the story, though. Also, there are original characters other than Reika in this chapter - two of them are pretty much just randomly there, but the last one is fairly important. For the first two, I just came up with random names, so they're not really supposed to mean anything, but I didn't check to make sure they didn't, so... I guess that's it. **

**Hope you enjoy the chapter, I guess.**

* * *

**Chapter Four:**

It wasn't for a couple of months that I got a chance to talk with Itachi. It was weird; I saw him much less than I saw Mikoto or Sasuke, but I'd somehow ended up liking him just as much. Which was bad, since I knew, if I couldn't stop the massacre… Well. I'd just have to stop it.

Anyway, I finally got to talk to Itachi – at about midnight when Sasuke was asleep and Mikoto and Fugaku were gone somewhere. He was sitting on the back porch – I could sense his chakra, which he wasn't bothering to hide. Itachi was possibly the most powerful ninja I'd met – or he would be. Even now, at eleven, he had just joined ANBU. I wasn't supposed to know that, but I'd overheard it. I was still three, and still working on sticking paper to myself with chakra. It was a little terrifying just how powerful he must be.

…And every time I saw him, the flame hiding in his chakra was just that little bit smaller. I slipped out to sit next to him. He didn't even react. I wasn't really surprised. And then we just sat there.

"Imouto," He said finally, turning slightly to look at me. His Sharingan was active. "What are you doing up so late?"

I blinked at him innocently. "Talking to you, Aniki." The effect was ruined, as I couldn't keep myself from grinning. I continued before he could interrupt me. "I wanted to talk to you. We never spend any time together."

Which had been exactly my excuse with Mikoto a couple of months before. This new family of mine was so dismal.

Itachi paused. "I apologize. I have been very busy." He turned away again.

"Doing what?" I had no idea where I was going with this.

He shook his head. "It's not important. You should go back to bed."

"I don't want to," I pouted childishly, sliding closer to him. "I want to stay up with you. I can sleep anytime, but you'll be busy again soon."

Obviously, he couldn't dispute my logic. You'd think I would be much more mature, smarter than him, since I'm several years older mentally. And yet I wasn't – he was far more mature and smart than a normal eleven-year-old. Especially without cheating, since I'm sure I made a very creepy three-year-old.

"You need your sleep," he sighed, already exasperated. I almost felt bad, since he was obviously being pushed too far, but I couldn't really help with that. "I promise I will spend time with you and Sasuke when I am able."

I huffed at him. "Yeah, in like a year." I crossed my arms, spinning to rest my back against his arm. He didn't seem like he was the proper size for his age. It was probably because I was eight years younger. "It's not fair."

"Just be patient," Itachi said wisely. "Things will slow down soon, and then I can spend time with you."

"I meant for you." I tilted my head back – I could just barely see him when I did. "The graduation age for the Academy is twelve, right? But you're eleven, and already in ANBU. That's not fair to you, is it?"

He tried to hide it, but I could see his surprise. Maybe it was because I was most definitely not acting like I was three, or maybe it was because I knew he was in ANBU. I would probably never know.

"It's for the clan," he said after a slight pause. "The clan needs me at my full potential, so I will fight for the clan."

I hummed discontentedly. "Yeah, but you deserve some free time. Sasuke just barely started training, and he's a year younger than you were when you graduated the Academy. Even the clan can't expect you to be perfect all the time."

I paused for a moment, but thought of something and continued on a different train of thought before Itachi could respond. "I thought being a ninja meant you were supposed to fight for the village?"

Immediately after I said it, I cursed myself – there was no way I should know that. At this rate, I'd give myself away accidentally. Not to mention, saying that wasn't exactly going to help if it came to listening to the clan or listening to the village.

He frowned suspiciously, turning to look at me, Sharingan still activated. He prodded me sharply with an elbow, causing me to squeak and jump.

"…You should go to bed." He wasn't even trying to hide that he didn't answer my question, but I didn't press. I nodded and stood. I noted, despairingly, that even standing to his sitting, I was barely taller.

Maybe I could try again later with a plan, since I'd let myself get distracted and not actually said anything important.

* * *

Our house was really big; several bedrooms, the kitchen, living room, dining room, the entryway, two rooms that I'm not sure what were, exactly, and Fugaku's study. He spent most of his time at home in there, which already wasn't a lot. I'm not sure, exactly, what he did in there.

Well, it didn't matter. What did matter was that he was in there now, and I was going to go talk to him. Because he was around so little, I hadn't really gotten many chances, which was bad, seeing as he was the clan leader. It had already been over a year since I'd first really tried to talk to Mikoto, and nearly a year since I had with Itachi.

I knocked timidly; I didn't really want to see him angry, since he was pretty scary just normally. It wasn't only his demeanor and stern expressions, but his chakra. It was always intimidating – I think that was the point, to help keeping those who were aware of it in line. A normal kid couldn't have felt it, and so wouldn't have noticed, but I could, and I wasn't a ninja and used to it enough to ignore it, so I was slightly wary of him.

"Enter," his voice called. I wasn't sure anybody ever said 'no' or 'go away' to a knock, especially not when they were the kind of person who used 'enter'. Either way, I slid the door open and entered.

Fugaku didn't even glance up. "Reika. Did you need something?" He asked dispassionately.

I nodded, even though he wouldn't see it. "Yes, Father. I was hoping I could ask you a question." One that he would hopefully not get mad about.

He didn't reply verbally, just waved his hand, so I took that as a cue to continue. "I was wondering, why is the Police Force so separate from the ninja corps?" I twisted my hands together nervously. I'd decided that, since he was obviously work obsessed, the best way to approach the Uchiha's situation with Konoha would be through the Police Force.

He did glance up, this time. "Because the Police Force is in charge of monitoring the ninja," he explained. "It is made up of only the best in order to be able to do this."

And here was where I could end up annoying him. "But then why are there only Uchiha?" I faked an innocent tone. Please don't get pissed off… "There are others that are good enough, right?"

"The Uchiha are the best," Fugaku said certainly. "None other is capable of matching us. You would do well to remember that."

Well, I'd already known that the Uchiha had a serious ego problem. "Of course, Father," I said anyway. "But not all ninja are Uchiha, so there must be ninja who are good enough to police other ninja, even if they aren't Uchiha?"

He was frowning behind his papers, I could tell. I wasn't sure if it was at my circular logic or at the point I was trying to make, however. "The Uchiha and outsiders do not work together," He said eventually. "That is how it is. You may go."

That wasn't subtle at all. "Yes, Father," I said, standing and walking to the door.

"Reika."

I turned back. "Yes, Father?" I used that sentence a lot.

He looked at me seriously. "Don't ask again."

"…Of course, Father." I slid the door open, slipping out of the room and closing it behind me. Obviously, that line of thought wouldn't help me with Fugaku. I'd hoped, but I guess his belief in the Uchiha's superiority was too strong. That was bad.

But it didn't matter. I couldn't let the massacre happen, and the only way to effectively stop it was to stop the coup.

I'd just have to find another way.

* * *

I peeked out from my hiding spot behind Sasuke just enough to glare. From what I could see of his face, Sasuke was glaring too.

Our targets, however, simply glowered back at us; they weren't any happier with the situation. Although for most of this life, I'd had very little interaction with anyone, even clan members, other than my parents and brothers, the adults had apparently decided that Sasuke and I needed 'companions closer to our own ages', because 'it's not healthy to only interact with each other'. Their words. Either way, because of this, they were making us spend time with some of the only other Uchiha children; twelve-year-olds who were about to graduate the Academy.

There weren't really many children in the clan, for some reason – it was possible it was just that Sasuke and I were in between generations, but there were no others close to our ages. Technically, there were a bunch of three-year-olds and younger, but because I always got lumped together with Sasuke, who was seven and much too old to play with babies, we got stuck with the twelve-year-olds.

Normally, this wouldn't be a problem; I was more than old enough mentally to equal them –since they were hardly at Itachi's level – and Sasuke was, overshadowed by Itachi or not, very close to a genius himself. So the problem wasn't with us, not really. It was the soon-to-be-Genin Academy students who had a problem. They were bitter about the fact that they were becoming Genin at the same age that Itachi was already an ANBU – not that they knew about that part, but they did know that he was at least a Chuunin, and was already getting high-level missions. Because he was so terrifying, their own abilities seemed pathetic in comparison.

This caused them to be pompous and condescending in an attempt to keep us from overshadowing them as well. The worst part for them was that Sasuke and I didn't even need to be better than they were – we just needed to be better than they had been at our age. It would, I knew, be incredibly insulting and possibly reputation and career-damaging for them to look bad in comparison to us, as well as probably insulting to their family. Although the clan as a whole considered itself to be its own faction within the Leaf Village, different families still had a reputation within the clan, and looking bad reflected badly on your family, and then on the clan, and then on the village. So even though we were all Uchiha, they didn't want to look bad compared to us, part of the Clan Head's family, because it would lower the standards the clan held their family to.

So I understood where they were coming from – but that didn't make it any less annoying. But I had absolutely no choice in the matter, because all of us would be forced to interact even more if the adults found out that we didn't get along. Even though Sasuke and I weren't in the line of succession as Clan Head – Itachi had that honor, being eldest – because we were still in the Clan Head's family, we were expected to be on good terms with the rest of the clan, especially those in or close to our age group. So I'd deal with the idiots, if only so that we could claim to be on good enough terms that we'd never have to hang out together again.

Thankfully, there were only two of them; I didn't think I could deal with any more. Their names were Raiko and Herin. Uchiha names were terrible, they really were. Anyway, they were both pretty average Genin-level Uchiha: neither had activated their Sharingan, they could use the Academy Three Jutsu as well as the Great Fireball Jutsu, and both had black hair and eyes. Herin's was short, and just the tips spiked up despite his attempts to get them to stop, while Raiko had longer hair that she kept in a braid.

I couldn't help but think that they would die soon if the massacre happened – probably only shortly after becoming Genin.

After being bullied into meeting up, we'd decided to go to one of the clearings in the forest around the compound – the residential areas wouldn't be any fun.

Once there, Raiko crossed her arms huffily. "So." She was looking more at Herin than at Sasuke and I. "What do we do now?"

"How am I supposed to know?" He grumbled back at her, scowling at us. "We could just ditch the brats."

Sasuke immediately puffed up in response to that. I interrupted before he could start an argument. "Actually, you _can't _ditch us," I told Herin evenly, still mostly standing behind Sasuke. "Because we're being watched."

I could feel the chakra of the lucky ninja who'd gotten that job, and it had been steadily following us, always staying the same distance away.

Sasuke blinked at me and opened his mouth to speak, but Herin scoffed loudly and cut him off. "Don't be ridiculous, if there was somebody around, I'd know!"

Glaring at him for interrupting Sasuke – I really couldn't stand being in groups of more than two or three – I stepped closer. "I'm sure you would," I agreed sarcastically. He narrowed his eyes at me, being smart enough to hear the sarcasm. "That is, if by 'around', you mean where you can see them!"

I was such a bad peacekeeper.

"Oh yeah?" Herin snarled. "And you can do so much better!" He towered over me, trying to use his height to intimidate me. It wasn't really very effective, especially when I remembered how tall adults were compared to him.

"Herin," Raiko sighed. She stepped up behind him, putting a hand on his shoulder. I noted vaguely that they were about the same height. "Stop it. Whether or not there's somebody watching us, if they find out that we didn't stay together, they'll just make us do it again."

Herin growled at me, but spun around and stormed a couple of steps away. Raiko narrowed her eyes at me in reproach. "You could at least try to get along," she pointed out wryly.

"I will if he will," I huffed, folding my arms defensively. "But it's not like there's anything to do, anyway."

Obviously, there was one thing we could do; the fallback pastime of just about every ninja child, Ninja. I wasn't really sure I wanted to play Ninja, however, seeing as Herin and Raiko were hardly going to be as nice as Itachi. It was possible they would be worse, too, since they were Academy students and not ANBU, but it didn't really matter how much better than us they were, not at the level Sasuke and I were at. We had no chance of beating an ANBU, but we didn't have any more chance of beating a Genin.

"Well, considering the spirit of what they want us to do," Raiko said slowly. "We should play a game of Ninja." She paused for dramatic effect. "But not the two of you against the two of us."

What? But then… oh, no. No. There was no way I was working with Raiko, much less Herin. I promptly said as much. Sasuke, since he already disliked them just as much as I did, quickly agreed.

Raiko just smirked at us. "But don't you want to be allowed to hopefully never communicate again?" She asked placidly. "This is the best way."

She turned away to go talk to Herin, ignoring Sasuke and me as we protested. Seeing that she wasn't paying attention, I stopped talking and glared at the back of her head sullenly. Apparently this had turned into a dictatorship while I wasn't paying attention.

Herin apparently acquiesced quickly, because they didn't argue for long before walking back over to us.

"All right!" Raiko said cheerfully, smirking triumphantly. "Obviously, we'll split into two teams; me and Sasuke-chan," Sasuke bristled, but Raiko ignored him, "And Herin and Reika-chan." I gaped at her, and wished that putting me and Herin together didn't make sense.

"Here are the rules," Raiko continued. "One hit and you're out, no argument, no matter where it was. No actually hurting each other. Attacking a teammate, whether on purpose or by accident, is an immediate out for both members, even if the attack didn't hit. Also, we'll be using training kunai." She opened a bag, revealing many blunt wooden kunai. "I don't have any shuriken or wire though, so none of those." Raiko thought about it for a moment. "No jutsu, either real or imaginary, and… I think that's it." She nodded to herself, apparently finished.

Without waiting for us to say anything, Raiko scooped up half of the training kunai, grabbed Sasuke, and dragged him away. "Five minutes to come up with a plan!" she called over her shoulder.

I scowled at Herin. He scowled back. Neither of us did or said anything for a minute. Finally, I sighed, because I really hated losing at Ninja and I realized that we would be playing, whether Herin and I were ready or not. "Sasuke likes direct attacks," I volunteered. "And he isn't very good at throwing, but he tries to use kunai as a distraction anyway."

"…Raiko is good at throwing, and she prefers if she can get close before the enemy realizes it," Herin said. He glared at me. "And don't think this means I like you, I just want to show up Raiko."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Obviously."

We quickly came up with a plan, trying and failing to keep the bickering to a minimum. Having decided that it would be a bad idea to stay in the clearing and wait for them to show back up, we sneaked into the forest at an angle from where they had – not in the same direction, but not the exact opposite either.

I did my best to be quiet, avoiding the annoying twigs that were somehow always under foot. Once we were a considerable distance into the forest, we turned in the direction Raiko and Sasuke had gone. It was nearly impossible to tell if a trail was theirs or not, but when we got to about the area I figured was where they'd travelled through the forest, I turned back towards the clearing. Herin continued further, rather than turning. He would slowly circle around the clearing.

Hearing a sound like a twig snapping, I jumped and spun in a circle. There was nothing around. I cursed myself for being so jumpy and hoped that one of them wasn't sneaking up on me. Soon after, I made it back to the clearing, and approached cautiously. I could just barely see one of them across the clearing – it was too short to be Raiko, so it must have been Sasuke. He was slowly edging himself forward from the opposite direction as me – so they'd circled the clearing.

Good thing we'd expected that, then. Herin had circled around to show up behind them, while I attacked head on. But something was off – I had a weird feeling about this. I hesitated for a moment, wondering where Raiko was, before shrugging it off. She was just sending Sasuke into the clearing as a decoy to make Herin and I come out. And anyway, it was Herin's job to deal with Raiko; it was my job to deal with Sasuke.

So, hoping that Herin wouldn't screw up, I ran at Sasuke. He saw me as soon as I broke cover, but that was okay – his thrown kunai didn't come anywhere near me. Granted, mine didn't go anywhere near him either. As we got within hand-to-hand distance, he stopped throwing kunai and crouched slightly. I squeaked and threw myself sideways, recognizing the signs. Sure enough, immediately after, I felt Sasuke lunge at the space where I had been.

I spun quickly to face him, and managed one punch in his general direction – he dodged it easily – before Sasuke began attacking back, and I had to dodge. Dodging backwards was easy, since it caused him to have to step forward to keep up with me, but I quickly realized that that was part of their plan – Sasuke was trying to force me into the forest.

Since I couldn't just fall into their trap, I did something that easily could have backfired; I threw myself at Sasuke. Technically, I threw myself at the space beside him, ducking and rolling to come back up behind him. Ignoring the part of my brain that was cheering at the fact that it succeeded, I drew a kunai and turned to face him as I brought my hand up. He spun as well, and brought his arm up to block my attack. At the last second, I twisted the kunai and threw it – rather awkwardly, since I'd been holding it backwards.

Miraculously, my aim wasn't too bad, even if the strength behind the kunai was pitiful, and it hit Sasuke square in the forehead. In this case, it was probably a good thing I hadn't been able to throw it very hard. Sasuke stumbled backwards, clapping a hand to his forehead.

As Sasuke pouted and started complaining, I spun in a circle, looking for Herin. Since I'd disqualified Sasuke, if he had also done his part – in disqualifying Raiko – we'd have won. However, rather than seeing my own older partner, I saw Sasuke's. Much closer than she should have been.

Raiko smiled at me, already in striking distance, and touched her kunai to my throat. "We win," she said, grinning triumphantly. Sasuke cheered, and she turned to him. "But you're still dead, Sasuke-chan."

As Sasuke and Raiko started to argue playfully, Herin stomped up beside me. I glared up at him, and he glared right back. "It's not my fault," he groused. "She snuck up behind me after we split up."

Of course she had. They must have anticipated that one of us would circle around the clearing and Raiko had stayed behind to catch the one who did. Still, I scoffed at him. "If you say so."

Herin snarled at me. "What'd you say?"

So this had turned out completely useless. At least Raiko and Sasuke were getting along now. And I wouldn't really turn down an opportunity to argue with somebody who I could win against, either…

The backyard wasn't very private. Even so, I really needed some kind of training, so I was running around it – trying to make it look like I was playing a game. And probably failing, but whatever. I was almost pathetically slow, and my stamina was about the same. And I really needed to speed up my training – I was almost five, and really running out of time.

But I heard when somebody knocked on the door, and when Itachi went to answer it. Curious, I snuck around the side of the house to spy on them. Of course, they probably knew I was there, but it was the concept that mattered.

I settled my back against the wall and strained my hearing – I could just barely hear them.

What?

They were talking about Shisui – who had been found dead. Supposedly after committing suicide. Itachi – Itachi had killed him? Already? Anyway?

I had hoped- but clearly… peeking around the side of the building, I saw as Itachi won against the three ninja. Before it was even a fight at all.

And I saw his eyes – the Mangekyou Sharingan.

* * *

Trying to have deep, meaningful conversations with ninja who didn't want to was almost ridiculously difficult. They almost certainly knew what I was doing, anyway. As such, it was almost another year since my last try before I really succeeded; all of my attempts got rejected or redirected. That year, however, put it at just after my fifth birthday; Sasuke had turned eight on July 23rd, while my birthday was on August 4th.

Since eight was the age the Academy started, Sasuke had been enrolled; his first year was starting today, in mid-august. It was kind of a weird time to start, but apparently that was how the Academy worked; they had several classes start all across the year, so one started about every two or three months.

The weird thing was that Itachi was the one who initiated the conversation. Well, technically. Itachi and I had gone to the opening ceremony of the Academy, and while Sasuke had to stay, Itachi and I were able to leave. But instead of bringing me straight home, Itachi walked to a secluded wooded area. He settled easily on the ground, leaning against one of the trees. I followed suit.

"Aniki?" I asked, confused. With his hectic schedule lately, I wouldn't really have expected him to go to a park and relax. He was always training, or on missions, or something.

"You're not nearly as innocent as you want everybody to think." It wasn't quite a question. He was obviously sure of this already. How had he figured it out?

I blinked at him, surprised. "What do you mean?" I wasn't going to give him more information than he already had.

He smirked slightly. "I found the scrolls in your room."

I bristled slightly – he'd been snooping in my room? I had known that the only thing keeping the scrolls secret was that nobody would look in my room, but I had still tried to hide them, so he couldn't have just stumbled onto them by accident.

Itachi continued before I could say anything. "'Beginner Chakra Use', 'Beginner Style', and 'Starting with Sharingan', hm?"

"…Okay. So you found the scrolls," I said defensively. I hadn't expected anybody to find them. "What about it?"

"Don't tell anybody else," he warned. "They have ignored you and Sasuke for now, but if they were to find out that you had managed to steal scrolls from the clan library and had been studying them, they would seize the chance for another prodigy."

Well, I already knew that. "I know. That's why I didn't say anything earlier," I pointed out. "I… _acquired_ them nearly three years ago. I saw the way they treated you – still treat you."

Itachi's eyebrows twitched upwards slightly. It was the only sign of surprise he gave. "The clan has their reasons."

"Of course," I agreed. "Which is why you're warning me against letting them have them with me?"

He sighed. "They already have a prodigy. They are not in need of another." He frowned contemplatively.

It wasn't at all relevant to the current conversation, but I didn't mind changing the subject, now that Itachi had given me the perfect chance. "Why does the clan hate the village so much?" Okay, that wasn't as subtle as I'd wanted. It would still work, probably. Why was Itachi so good at catching me when I didn't have a plan?

"They don't," Itachi replied automatically. "Why do you ask?"

I snorted at him – as inelegantly as I could manage. "Of course they do. They've been avoiding the village as well as they could since I was a baby." I thought about that for a moment. "Maybe before."

Although he had known that I was smarter than a normal five-year-old, I think that I still took him by surprise.

"It is… complicated."

Ah, of course. "I'm sure." I didn't hide just how unmoved I was. "It's politics and stuff, but that's not a reason."

Itachi turned to face me. "I… can't tell you," he said seriously. "I would rather you not be involved at all."

"Yeah," I said. "But it's kind of hard for me not to be. I mean, it's not like I'm part of the clan or anything." The sarcasm was strong in that sentence.

He just looked at me evenly.

"Come on! Nothing?" I said desperately. "Something is going on! I can _tell_, and nobody will tell me or Sasuke anything."

Itachi stood, lifting me to my feet with him. "It's better for you if you don't know."

He walked away, still holding on to my hand so that I was forced to follow. No matter what I said, he didn't respond. I might as well have been talking to a statue.

I really hoped that I had changed things, that it wasn't all going the same way it had originally.

I wasn't sure I believed it.

* * *

Carefully, as the boy passed by the arrogant, but rich, travelling merchant, he reached a hand up and slipped it into the man's pocket. He cursed his short, five-year-old height once again. It wasn't really a rare occurrence. Being a child was surprisingly debilitating, and the boy was reminded of the annoyance every time he tried to pickpocket somebody. It was hard to ignore when you have to reach up over your head just to make it into their pocket. This also made it harder to hide – it wasn't exactly unobtrusive.

But he was hardly going to let a little thing like that hinder him – he'd gotten good enough that it didn't matter. He'd had to; being born to a widow who then died in childbirth, in a town that didn't care about orphans, wasn't really constructive for morals. And he refused to die here, not now. He had something he had to do first.

In order to further his goal, he'd studied any ninja who'd ever visited the town, attempting to learn what he could. Once, he'd even dared try to pickpocket one.

Successfully withdrawing the man's moneybag, the boy hid it in the sleeve of his ratty shirt and quickly wandered away from the man, into an empty alleyway. From there, he planned to climb a short wall and continue further away from his former target. It was best to be as far away as possible when the target realized they'd been pick-pocketed.

As he was half-way through the alley, the man noticed his missing moneybag and roared angrily. Oddly enough, he was smarter than the usual – the boy hadn't factored that in – and quickly realized that it had been the urchin that had gotten just a bit too close who'd stolen his money. He spun around to look, soon spotting the dirty young boy in the alley, who then bolted for the fence. If he could just get out of sight, he could probably get away. He knew the town much better than the traveler, after all.

The merchant chased after him, quickly gaining because of his much longer legs. The boy swore violently under his breath – it was probably a good thing nobody could hear him – and sped up. Fortunately, he soon made it to the fence, which was too tall to simply jump over, but short enough that he could use a conveniently-placed crate to get over it. Landing on the other side, the boy ran down the new street, and cursed his choice of target as he heard the man clamber over the fence to continue chasing him. He'd assumed that the obviously rich merchant would be too lazy to chase him for long. Apparently, he'd miscalculated.

Somewhat panicked now as the man kept gaining, the boy ran onto a busy street, realized that they would probably help his follower rather than him, and dodged off onto an abandoned street just as quickly. The merchant kept following, delayed only slightly by the people on the busy street. The boy, seeing an opportunity, ran into one of the worse parts of town – the slums, as they could be considered. They rarely had many people on them, and they were very winding and confusing.

Soon, the footsteps of the man chasing him faded, but he kept running, despite gasping for breath. He glanced backwards to check if the man was in sight – he wasn't – and completely missed the person in front of him. They became rather hard to ignore, however, when he ran into them. The boy bounced off of them, landing on the ground.

"Well, well." The voice was soft and somehow slippery sounding. "What have we here?"

The boy looked up from his spot on the ground. The man – he thought, at least – he'd run into was, for lack of a better word, simply creepy looking. He had long black hair, white – not just pale, but white – skin, and narrow golden eyes.

And the boy knew who he was – Orochimaru, one of the famous Sannin, and currently a Missing-nin from Konoha. He scrambled to his feet, brandishing a kunai he'd stolen from a ninja. Of course, this particular man wouldn't even blink at an untrained five-year-old street urchin with a pilfered kunai.

As the boy had expected, Orochimaru just smirked. "Oh? An aspiring Shinobi, then?" He took a step forward. He chuckled as the boy took a step back warily. "Don't worry. I won't hurt you." His tone was patronizing, making the boy grit his teeth. "What's your name?"

The boy paused. His goal wasn't something he could achieve as some random person in a random town. He would need ninja training – which he'd never be able to get on his own. With Orochimaru, however distasteful the idea… he could.

"Well?" Orochimaru prompted. "Can you speak at all?"

It wasn't really much of a choice. "…Nanashi," He answered cautiously. "My name is Nanashi."

* * *

**(A/N) By the way, according to Google Translate (which is not reliable, so I could be wrong), 'Nanashi' means 'nameless', 'anonymous', or 'no name'. I thought it was fitting, since he wouldn't have been named by his parents, if rather cruel. Plus I just like the name. I didn't do any research on it, but if it's been in anything else, that's not what I got it from.**


	5. Chapter 5

**So, it's been over a month since my last update... oops? Updates are probably often going to be few and far in between, especially since I just started school. Even so, I'll try to keep writing. I'm really only a little into the Naruto fandom anymore, which is why I don't write much, but I got some really nice reviews that made me want to update, so there we are. Thank you to everybody who reviewed, by the way (all seven reviews I've gotten on this story)! I really appreciate feedback, and being told that my story doesn't completely suck helps make me want to write more. On a completely unrelated and somewhat spoiler-y note, I enjoyed writing the massacre probably too much... also, I'm sorry to anybody disappointed that the massacre still happens; I never really intended for Reika to stop it, partially because I'm lazy but mostly because I don't think it would have been realistic. So. Anyway, I'll stop rambling.**

**Wait, should I be adding a disclaimer? Either way, I don't own Naruto. Nor, most likely, the idea of adding an SI OC as Sasuke and Itachi's younger sister.**

* * *

**Chapter Five:**

I couldn't stop it. I couldn't _stop _it. Four years, and I'd done absolutely nothing.

_I couldn't stop it._

Even though my ability to sense chakra was weak, I'd been semi-aware of the chakra signatures of everybody in the compound. Unknowingly, until I had a reason to notice – a reason like them suddenly starting to disappear.

_I failed._

It was late, and a major clan meeting had just ended. Almost the entire clan had attended, not just the ninja. Every ninja clan member had been in the compound. Sasuke was just about the only clan member that wasn't, in fact.

_They're all going to die._

After the meeting ended, they'd all split up and gone back to their houses – and now, in the houses around the edges of the compound, chakra signatures were going out. It was weird, though – Itachi was fast, but there was no way he was that fast.

_I couldn't save them._

They were all dying, and I – I couldn't do anything; what could I do? Kill Itachi? Even if I'd wanted to, I couldn't, there was no chance of overpowering him. And – I was scared. I didn't know what would happen. I didn't know if Itachi would kill me too – he'd left Sasuke alone, but did he care about me like he cared about Sasuke? I was creepy, unnatural, a prodigy like him. I wasn't cute, innocent, _likable_. Even if he did, would he kill me anyway, because I knew too much?

_I couldn't change anything._

I whimpered, curling up in a ball on my bed. I tried to not feel the chakra signatures – little balls of light, of life – as they died, as they went out. I didn't want to know. I didn't want to face how badly I'd failed. My eyes were burning slightly – I assumed it was with tears.

_It was all useless._

Everything was jumbled - I could barely sense that far away at all – and I couldn't tell anything except that the lights at the edge of my awareness kept blinking out. I couldn't tell who, or even really if they were ninja or civilian. Everything was clear, slow – maybe I was going into shock?

_I was useless._

And they were getting closer – the people who were dying, that is. There was hardly a pause in between each of their deaths; they didn't stand a chance against Itachi. I wasn't sure if it was embarrassing for them or terrifying because of him. Closer, closer…

_I might as well have never been born._

Eventually – after what felt like both forever and no time at all – everybody had died. Except for me, Mikoto, and Fugaku. Wait. There was another chakra signature, hovering in the compound - I didn't recognize it, though that wasn't surprising, since I didn't know most of the clan members.

_Nothing could change._

Itachi was approaching the house. Slowly, I stood from my bed – either way, he would find me. He was in the house. I slipped towards the door. He was in the same room as Mikoto and Fugaku – but none of them were doing anything. Just talking? I slid the door open and crept down the hallway.

_I should have stayed dead._

I flinched as Fugaku and Mikoto's chakra signatures blinked out of existence, within seconds of each other. They hadn't changed at all, hadn't fought back? I was at the door to the room. It was closed. I didn't really want to open it. I could feel Itachi's chakra – the fire was even smaller, more like a candle now.

_I would never be able to change anything._

"Reika," Itachi's voice came from in the room. It made me jump. "I know you're there."

Taking a breath, I slid the door open, stepping inside. I knew what I would see, so I kept my eyes closed. I didn't want to see them, and I wasn't going to give Itachi an easy way to genjutsu me. Especially not with Tsukuyomi.

Itachi snorted softly – at least that was what it sounded like. "Weak. Can you not face dead bodies, even when in a battle situation?"

Clearly, he was already starting the evil act. I didn't open my eyes. "This isn't a battle situation," I replied shakily. "And it wouldn't matter if I opened my eyes. You'd still kill me easily."

"I will not kill you," he said ominously. "You aren't worth my time."

Despite myself, I was slightly offended. I mean, I knew that his answer was probably a lie, but… being told I was worth less than a civilian was still insulting.

But I didn't say any of that. "Oh, really?" I said, trying to keep my voice from shaking. I'm sure I failed. "…But the civilians were?"

Or maybe I did. Terror or not, grief or not, I couldn't help it. I knew why he had killed the civilians – they had known about the coup as well. I also knew he would never tell me that.

He paused slightly, probably taken aback at my audacity. "No." His voice was flat. "They were weak. They had no potential. You will get stronger."

The situation was serious, and terrifying, but I still couldn't help but be amazed at his fake logic; it made so little sense. "So you're leaving me alive," I paused. "Because I'll be able to match you in the future?"

Itachi twitched slightly. Clearly, this wasn't going the way he'd wanted. "Do you know why I killed them?"

I was still afraid – of course I was; even if he'd said he wouldn't kill me, there was no reason to think he was telling the truth. "No," I said uneasily. I figured that if he had been telling the truth, the best thing to do would be play along.

"To test myself. My abilities." His voice was low, creepy. He was the most terrifying thirteen-year-old I'd ever seen – not that that was saying much. "…However, they were all weak. Useless. You and Sasuke, you can get better. Stronger."

I wouldn't open my eyes – I wanted to look at him, but I wouldn't. "I see. And you can just tell that we'll be better than the rest of the clan?"

I could hear him shifting, his ANBU armor clacking. "Hate me. Live in your hate," Itachi said monotonously. "…Only then do you have any hope."

He Body Flickered behind me. I knew it was stupid, I really did, but… I spun to face him, opening my eyes and letting them meet his. He looked surprised, for some reason. His eyes, everything, looked weird – too clear, too stark. "I won't hate you," I said quickly, before he could do anything. "I'll _never _hate you."

It was true.

His eyes widened slightly before he forced them back to normal. I slammed my eyes closed again – I was already lucky if he hadn't done anything. Itachi scoffed. "Then I gave you too much credit. Still. "

Too fast to react, he brought his hand up and slammed it into the back of my neck. I crumpled quickly, already out. My last thought was that Sasuke would probably think I was dead.

_My existence is pointless._

* * *

I woke up in a white and blue room that I'd never seen before. Going off of what I knew from the show, though, it was probably the hospital. Awesome.

There was nobody around, and nothing sticking into me or anything – I was just lying in the bed. As such, I shrugged and swung my legs around to get out of the bed. No point in sticking around.

So I wandered out, looking for the main desk – they would be able to tell me where Sasuke was. He probably wouldn't wake up for a while – he'd been Tsukuyomi'd, while Itachi had just knocked me out normally – but I wanted to see him.

Not to mention figuring out what would happen to us now. And seriously, why are all hospitals such mazes?

But I eventually found the main desk. "Excuse me," I said to the nurse sitting there. I had to stretch to see over the desk.

She didn't look up. "Yes, how can I help you?" The line was clearly well practiced.

"My name is Uchiha Reika," I said, stopping there. That would almost certainly be enough; I had no doubt that the news was all over by now. The news that my entire family was dead. My eyes watered suddenly, but I blinked the tears back. Wait, last night (or however long ago)… That burning wasn't at all similar to this.

I refocused as the nurse gasped, her head shooting up to look at me. "You're awake?" She stammered. "Okay, give me a minute – there are a lot of people who want to talk to you."

I sighed. I should have expected that, but it didn't make it any less annoying. I just wanted to curl up in a ball and ignore life for a while. Clearly, I should have thought of that before I left the hospital room they'd put me in.

"Yes, of course," I answered belatedly, realizing that she wanted a response. She nodded, and left quickly.

Spinning around, I sat and leaned my back against the desk. The Sharingan was first activated by an extremely emotional situation – which the massacre would have counted as. And the odd clear, slowness that I had mostly ignored, plus the burning in my eyes… I hadn't even considered that I'd developed my Sharingan. It would explain Itachi's surprise when I opened my eyes, if I'd still had it activated. But wouldn't I have noticed the chakra drain? Well, I wasn't really paying much attention to my own chakra at the time.

"Uchiha Reika," a voice said from in front of me. I jumped slightly in surprise before looked up at the possessor – it was a rather large ANBU."If you could come with me."

"Uh-" I stammered slightly. "Right, of course." I stood.

I wasn't acting like a five-year-old, I knew, but it wasn't like I really knew how to act like one anyway.

The ANBU leaned down to wrap an arm around my shoulders – I was that short – and we were suddenly moving – and outside the Hokage's office. Technically, we were in the Academy building, but in the administrative department rather than the parts used as the Academy.

Whoa. I stumbled away from him, somewhat dazed. He was fast – I'd barely had time to register the movement at all. I wasn't sure if that was terrifying or awesome.

He set one massive, at least compared to me, hand on my shoulder, using it to steer me towards a large set of double doors. I assumed they led to the Hokage's office. The ANBU knocked on the door, waited for the, "Come in," before opening it, and led me in. All without speaking at all – I guess he wasn't terribly verbose.

The Hokage looked up as we entered. "Ah, Uchiha Reika," he said with an odd emotion. I couldn't figure out what it was. "You're awake, then? How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine," I said. I wasn't going to tell him more without prompting. All he had to do was raise an eyebrow, however, and I suddenly felt childish. "…Physically."

The Hokage sighed. "Of course. What else could we expect, after that?" He gestured to a chair in front of his desk. "Please, sit."

He glanced at the ANBU, who nodded and disappeared. I stared at where he had been for a moment – that was so cool – before moving towards the chair and sitting in it. What else would I have done with it?

I stared expectantly at the Hokage. He didn't disappoint, speaking a minute later. "If you wouldn't mind, I do have some questions about that night."

Settling further in the chair, I nodded slightly. "Can I ask something, first?"

"Of course."

"How long was I out for?" I really did want to know.

He gave me an odd look – maybe that wasn't what he'd expected. "Just over a day," he answered finally. I looked out the massive wall of windows – that made sense, since it was morning.

"I see." I paused slightly. "What questions do you have?"

The Hokage didn't answer for a moment. He opened a drawer, pulling out a pipe, which he quickly lit. "Let's just start with the generals," He said finally. "What happened, as you know it?"

I took a moment to gather my thoughts. "Well, the clan had been meeting about something," I began. "I don't know what; it was adults only…"

* * *

Finally finished answering the Hokage's questions, after probably two hours, I'd asked to see Sasuke. They'd told me that he was still asleep, and said that it was better to let him rest undisturbed. It was annoying; they were treating me like a five-year-old. Even if I _was _one, they had to have noticed that I was hardly normal.

They had, at least, explained that due to blah, blah, blah, which I hadn't listened to – it all translated to politics, anyway – Sasuke and I would continue living in what was technically his house - or it would be once he turned eighteen or became a ninja – at least after they finished with it. For a while, we'd have an appointed caretaker making sure that we were eating right and such. Obviously, they wouldn't just leave a newly orphaned eight-year-old and five-year-old alone. I was just amused by the obvious double standard between their treatment of us compared to their treatment of Naruto.

After that, they'd taken me to an apartment. They left me at the door, and I walked in alone. It was a small two bedroom with a single tiny bathroom and a small kitchen. It was boring, to say the least.

So I left, deciding to sneak in to the Uchiha compound. I wasn't sure anyone would let me in, hence the 'sneak' part. Maybe it didn't matter – there was nobody around when I got there, so I just ducked under the crime scene tape and continued.

It was creepy, seeing it so empty. In the afternoons, there was usually a lot of bustle, people rushing around. And now there… wasn't.

I wandered around for a while, putting off going to my house. I didn't want to see it, not really. Eventually, I circled around to it. I walked in, and very studiously did _not _go into the room Mikoto and Fugaku had died in.

The house was creepy, too. There was almost always somebody else there – Sasuke, or Mikoto, or Itachi, somebody. And now I was home alone. That would probably happen much more often now.

If I didn't distract myself, I would end up crying. So I left. I didn't want to go back to the apartment Sasuke and I were supposed to stay in, but at least there I would have privacy. Once there, I went into the bathroom. I stared at myself in the mirror. It was still weird, probably would be for a while, to see myself the way I looked now. Ignoring that for now, I closed my eyes and concentrated – I could kind of feel the pathways the chakra had created as it flowed to my eyes. It seemed I actually had activated the Sharingan, which I hadn't expected; Sasuke didn't develop his until he was twelve.

Well, whatever. Oddly eager to try it, I urged my chakra to my eyes. I kept my eyes closed, remembering the burn the first time. I wasn't disappointed; it burned my eyes again, though less this time. It wasn't really painful, just uncomfortable.

I opened my eyes, looking at myself in the mirror. It was weird, almost freaky, to see it – the show had never shown a kid with the Sharingan, I didn't think. I only had one tomoe in each eye at the moment. And I could see chakra in myself – chakra flow, actually. Weird. I turned away from the mirror; I wanted to see what else it could do.

Like I'd noticed before, everything was sharp and clear. Small details that I usually never noticed stood out to me suddenly. Even the smallest things – a bird outside the window, I could see, so clearly, as the muscles in its wing moved.

Okay. It was official. The Sharingan was awesome. I could see why the others had been so proud of it. I also knew that I didn't want to be so dependent on it – the same way a ninja wouldn't become dependent on having a certain weapon.

Obviously, I would train the Sharingan – it was so cool, how could I not? But I would make sure to train without it, too – at least as much. Because it did take chakra – a lot of chakra, at least for how much I had now. Realizing how quickly it was draining my chakra, I deactivated my Sharingan. I was already kind of low on chakra.

I'd definitely need to work on that, as well as training without the Sharingan.

Walking out of the bathroom, I went to my new room. At first, I'd figured nothing had been moved from the house, but then I noticed; on the bedside table… were scrolls. The ones I'd taken from the clan library three years ago. I'd been so proud of sneaking past all of those people. They'd obviously found them while searching the house. They hadn't exactly been designed to stay hidden from ANBU.

And even though I was in a five-year-old body, I was a freaking twenty-one-year-old woman. I was not going to cry. Not over something so stupid.

But I… I had really hoped I'd be able to change things. That the massacre wouldn't happen and nobody would die…

And it had all happened anyway.

Okay, fine. I gave up quickly, flopping onto the bed and curling around the pillow. Even though there seemed to be nobody around, I was suspicious. There were probably guards around, especially immediately after something so major. Just because I hadn't noticed any, even when I'd had my Sharingan active, didn't necessarily mean they weren't there.

So I yanked the bedspread up around me and my pillow too.

Embarrassingly, I cried myself to sleep. I would never admit that out loud, though.

* * *

I must have terrible luck. About a week later, Sasuke woke up. Obviously, this wasn't a bad thing; however, the fact that I wasn't with him was. I'd mostly been sitting in his room for that week – what else was I supposed to do? But I couldn't stay in his room 24/7. And naturally, he would wake up during one of my bathroom breaks.

Returning to the room after less than five minutes away, I found it empty. My first thought was that he'd been kidnapped, before realizing that that was stupid. I saw from the window as Sasuke ran out of the hospital.

Of course he did. He would have been wondering if it was true – if everyone (probably including me) was dead. So, because I wasn't there to explain, he went to check.

I spun around and darted towards the exit. Maybe I could catch him – I didn't want him to see the compound. Even if I was technically younger, I was mentally several years older; I considered him more a little brother than an older one. Unlike Itachi, who was scarily mature enough to still seem older.

Unfortunately, I overestimated my speed. Or underestimated Sasuke's. Either way, I never did catch up to him – the only reason I could even compete was because I already knew where he was going. It started raining, suddenly, as I made it to the compound. I ducked under the security tape, running to our house. I was sure he'd be there.

Although it was still weird – in my old life we'd rarely taken our shoes off before entering a house – I remembered to flick them off before I ran in. I slowed down as I approached the room – the one Mikoto and Fugaku had died in, and the one I knew Sasuke would be in.

I peeked in the open door hesitantly. I could see Sasuke, and further in were the chalk outlines and blood. Sasuke was facing away from me, so I couldn't see his face. He was crying, though, I could hear. Taking a breath and trying not to start crying again myself, I stepped into the room, falling to my knees next to and a little behind him.

"…Sasuke?" I said hesitantly when he didn't acknowledge me.

He jumped slightly as he turned to me. "Reika?" he said incredulously. Sasuke lunged forward suddenly, wrapping his arms around me. "I – I thought you were dead… you were just lying there."

I relaxed against him, letting my head rest on his shoulder. "I'm fine," I said after a pause. I didn't know how much to say. "I just got knocked out."

I carefully avoided saying Itachi's name.

Sasuke, who had seemed to calm down a little, suddenly started crying in earnest. I blinked back tears again – at this rate he was really going to make me cry. And then he really did make me start crying. Eventually, we stopped, and we left the compound, going back to the hospital.

And after that, both of us would always use the other's name, rather than relation. Neither of us would ever mention it.

* * *

It was after a couple more days that Sasuke went back to the Academy. And I realized that I really had no reason to hide my skill level any more, and it would be easier to graduate at the same time as the Rookie Nine if I was in the same grade.

While he was in class and I had nothing to do, I decided to try to get into the Academy; hopefully they would let me join a class a couple of weeks late. The problem was that I had no idea who to talk to. Well, I'd just have to figure it out.

So I walked to the Academy. I wandered into the building, trying to find a Chuunin that wasn't currently teaching a class. It seemed like they were all in class at the moment – they probably didn't have many teachers anyway, so that made sense.

Finally, though, I found one in the halls. I'm sure he was very surprised, but he came over to me to talk regardless.

"Do you go here?" He started with. It made sense.

I blinked up at him blankly. "No," I answered. "But I want to."

The Chuunin sighed at me. This was probably common. "All right," He said. "Where are your parents, kid?"

I had to suppress a smirk. "Dead."

His face was a rather hilarious picture of surprise. "I'm sorry." He obviously didn't know what to do. "Uh, your guardian?"

"I don't know," I shrugged. "I haven't met them yet. Hokage-sama said they'd come by soon." I smiled at him. "My name is Uchiha Reika."

The Chuunin grimaced immediately, obviously recognizing the name. "I see." He paused, clearly wondering what to do. "I'm afraid that you'll have to talk to the Hokage about this, then."

He nodded to me courteously before turning to walk away. I stared after him. Seriously? 'Go talk to the Hokage'? That was it?

I pouted slightly in the direction he'd left. But I figured that if anybody could get me into the Academy, it was the Hokage, so I went to the administrative section to find him. Hopefully he would talk to me.

Walking into the waiting room, I walked over to talk to his secretary. I wondered distantly how they decided who got that position.

"Excuse me," I said to her.

Naturally, she didn't look up. "How can I help you?" She said monotonously.

"I was hoping I could talk to Hokage-sama…" I said tentatively. "My name is Uchiha Reika."

The woman glanced up immediately. Everybody couldn't keep reacting like that forever, seriously. "Right," she said oddly. "Let me ask him."

She strode over to knock on the door. The Hokage apparently responded quickly – I couldn't hear from here – and she opened the door slightly, leaning in to say something quietly. Soon, she leaned back out and opened the door further.

"You can go in," she said to me, returning to her desk.

Um. I slunk over to the door hesitantly. As I entered the room, the Hokage said, "Close the door behind you."

I did as told before skulking over to the Hokage's desk. "Hokage-sama," I greeted falteringly, bowing to him.

He folded his arms on his desk, looking at me. "What did you need, Reika-chan?" he asked kindly. I wasn't fooled – he was still the Hokage.

"Well, I was hoping..." I trailed off, and he nodded encouragingly. I wasn't sure how a nod could be encouraging, but he managed it. "I was hoping to enter the Academy."

He sighed, looking down. "Is that so?" He paused for a moment before continuing. "You are aware that the proper Academy entrance age is eight?"

I nodded quickly – he could probably see it. "I know. I was hoping I could enter early." I stared at him hopefully. "I want to be in class with Sasuke."

"I see. I'm afraid the rule is there for a reason." He looked back up. "It's for your own safety, Reika. You don't want to start being a ninja now, believe me."

I huffed at him, briefly horrified by my own disrespect. "It's a little late for that," I argued.

"I apologize, but my decision remains the same."

After gaping for a moment, I realized that I'd need to prove it. I didn't say anything, just pulled a piece of paper out of my pocket – I'd been practicing for four years, and I'd gotten really good at sticking it to me with chakra. I focused chakra to my forehead, promptly pressing the paper over it. When I removed my hand, the paper stayed.

"I can already kind of use chakra," I said desperately. Hopefully, it was enough – the show had shown Naruto, Kiba, and… Chouji? learning how to do it while in the Academy, so… I didn't want to show that I had developed the Sharingan, but I would if I had to.

The Hokage stared for a moment before speaking. "I see. And you truly want to join the Academy?"

"Yes!"

He nodded reluctantly. "You believe you can keep up?"

I blinked at him. "Uh, yes?"

He sighed. "All right. I will enroll you then."

I jerked in surprise. I almost cheered, but restrained myself. He was the Hokage, after all. "Thank you, Hokage-sama," I said respectfully.

He gave me a stern look. "However, since the last Academy class started several weeks ago, I will be enrolling you in the next starting class," the Hokage explained. "If you do well enough, you can ask to be transferred to the slightly more advanced class that Sasuke is in."

"I understand, Hokage-sama," I said. "Thank you."

Even if I wasn't in Sasuke's class, being enrolled in the Academy at all was more than I could really have expected. I was five, after all, and I didn't know the special circumstances that must have been around Kakashi and Itachi.

The Hokage tilted his head in acknowledgement. "Of course. You may go."

I bowed to him and left quickly. I couldn't believe it had been so easy.

Now I just had to graduate in four years with Sasuke. At nine, myself. Not to mention, of course, everything that would happen once the series started.

Should be a piece of cake.


End file.
